Lecture

Electron Bombarded CCD: Principles and Applications

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Description

This lecture discusses the principles and applications of electron bombarded charge-coupled devices (EB-CCDs) for single photon detection. It begins with an overview of intensified CCDs, explaining how photons are converted to electrons through a photocathode, followed by electron multiplication via microchannel plates. The instructor then introduces the EB-CCD, highlighting its working principle where single photons generate single electrons that are accelerated to high voltages, resulting in impact ionization and a significant gain of electrons. The lecture emphasizes the efficiency of this method, achieving gains of 100 to 200, which is sufficient for many single photon detection applications. The discussion includes examples of electron bombarded active pixel sensors (EB-APS) and their ability to detect low-level visible light, particularly in night vision scenarios. The lecture concludes with a description of intensified EB-CCDs, which combine microchannel plate amplification with electron bombardment for enhanced sensitivity, showcasing the potential for high total gains in detection systems.

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Related concepts (32)

Image sensor

An image sensor or imager is a sensor that detects and conveys information used to form an . It does so by converting the variable attenuation of light waves (as they pass through or reflect off objects) into signals, small bursts of current that convey the information. The waves can be light or other electromagnetic radiation. Image sensors are used in electronic imaging devices of both analog and digital types, which include digital cameras, camera modules, camera phones, optical mouse devices, medical imaging equipment, night vision equipment such as thermal imaging devices, radar, sonar, and others.

Active-pixel sensor

An active-pixel sensor (APS) is an , which was invented by Peter J.W. Noble in 1968, where each pixel sensor unit cell has a photodetector (typically a pinned photodiode) and one or more active transistors. In a metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) active-pixel sensor, MOS field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) are used as amplifiers. There are different types of APS, including the early NMOS APS and the now much more common complementary MOS (CMOS) APS, also known as the CMOS sensor.

Sensor

A sensor is a device that produces an output signal for the purpose of sensing a physical phenomenon. In the broadest definition, a sensor is a device, module, machine, or subsystem that detects events or changes in its environment and sends the information to other electronics, frequently a computer processor. Sensors are used in everyday objects such as touch-sensitive elevator buttons (tactile sensor) and lamps which dim or brighten by touching the base, and in innumerable applications of which most people are never aware.

Charge-coupled device

A charge-coupled device (CCD) is an integrated circuit containing an array of linked, or coupled, capacitors. Under the control of an external circuit, each capacitor can transfer its electric charge to a neighboring capacitor. CCD sensors are a major technology used in digital imaging. In a CCD , pixels are represented by p-doped metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) capacitors.

Night vision

Night vision is the ability to see in low-light conditions, either naturally with scotopic vision or through a night-vision device. Night vision requires both sufficient spectral range and sufficient intensity range. Humans have poor night vision compared to many animals such as cats, foxes and rabbits, in part because the human eye lacks a tapetum lucidum, tissue behind the retina that reflects light back through the retina thus increasing the light available to the photoreceptors.

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