The development of the Skipper Charge Coupled Devices (Skipper-CCDs) has been a major technological breakthrough for sensing very weak ionizing particles. The sensor allows to reach the ultimate sensitivity of silicon material as a charge signal sensor by unambiguous determination of the charge signal collected by each cell or pixel, even for single electron-hole pair ionization. Extensive use of the technology was limited by the lack of specific equipment to operate the sensor at the ultimate performance. In this work a simple, single-board Skipper-CCD controller is presented, aimed for the operation of the detector in high sensitivity scientific applications. The article describes the main components and functionality of the Low Threshold Acquisition (LTA) together with experimental results when connected to a Skipper-CCD sensor. Measurements show unprecedented deep sub-electron noise of 0.039 e$^-_{rms}$/pix for 5000 pixel measurements.
The readout noise for Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs) has been the main limitation when using these detectors for measuring small amplitude signals. A readout system for a new scientific, low noise CCD is presented in this paper. The Skipper CCD architecture, and its advantages for low noise applications are discussed. A technique for obtaining sub-electron readout noise levels is presented, and its noise and signal characteristics are derived. We demonstrate a very low readout noise of $0.2e^{-}$ RMS. Also, we show the results using the detector in a low-energy X-ray detection experiment.
This work briefly discusses the potential applications of the Skipper-CCD technology in astronomy and reviews its current use in dark matter and neutrino experiments. An overview of the ongoing efforts to build multi-kilogram experiments with these sensors is given, in the context of the Oscura experiment. First results from the characterization of Oscura sensors from the first 200 mm wafer-fabrication run with a new vendor are presented. The overall yield of the electron counting capability of these sensors is 71%. A noise of 0.087 e$^-$ RMS, with 1225 samples/pix, and a dark current of (0.03…
We present the development of a Skipper Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) focal plane prototype for the SOAR Telescope Integral Field Spectrograph (SIFS). This mosaic focal plane consists of four 6k $\times$ 1k, 15 $μ$m pixel Skipper CCDs mounted inside a vacuum dewar. We describe the process of packaging the CCDs so that they can be easily tested, transported, and installed in a mosaic focal plane. We characterize the performance of $\sim 650 μ$m thick, fully-depleted engineering-grade Skipper CCDs in preparation for performing similar characterization tests on science-grade Skipper CCDs which will…
Characterization of Spurious Charge in SENSEI Skipper-CCDs
C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stony Brook University（纽约州立大学石溪分校杨振宁理论物理研究所）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University（纽约州立大学石溪分校物理与天文学系）；Department of Physics and Institute for Fundamental Science, University of Oregon（俄勒冈大学物理与基础科学研究所）；Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory（费米国家加速器实验室）；Département de Physique, Université de Montréal（蒙特利尔大学物理系）；Instituto de Inv. en Ing. Eléctrica (IIIE), Dpto. de Ingeniería Eléctrica y de Computadoras (DIEC), Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS)-CONICET（国立苏尔大学电气与计算机工程系电气研究研究所（IIIE）-阿根廷科学与技术研究委员会）；Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago（芝加哥大学天文与天体物理学系）；Brookhaven National Laboratory（布鲁克海文国家实验室）；School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel-Aviv University（特拉维夫大学物理与天文学学院）
Light-tight skipper-CCDs for X-ray detection in space
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory（费米国家加速器实验室）；C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stony Brook University（石溪大学杨振宁理论物理研究所）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University（石溪大学物理与天文学系）；Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory（劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室）；Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Departamento de Física（布宜诺斯艾利斯大学理学院物理系）
We characterize the response of a novel 250 $μ$m thick, fully-depleted Skipper Charged-Coupled Device (CCD) to visible/near-infrared light with a focus on potential applications for astronomical observations. We achieve stable, single-electron resolution with readout noise $σ\sim 0.18$ e$^{-}$ rms/pix from 400 non-destructive measurements of the charge in each pixel. We verify that the gain derived from photon transfer curve measurements agrees with the gain calculated from the quantized charge of individual electrons to within < 1%. We also perform relative quantum efficiency measurements and…
Dark Matter In CCDs (DAMIC) is a silicon detector apparatus used primarily for searching for low-mass dark matter using the silicon bulk of Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs) as targets. The silicon target within each CCD is \SI{675}{\micro\meter} thick and its top surface is divided into over 16 million \SI{15}{\micro\meter} $\times$ \SI{15}{\micro\meter} pixels. The DAMIC collaboration has installed a number of these CCDs at SNOLAB. As of 2019, DAMIC at SNOLAB has reached operational conditions with leakage current less than \SI{8.2e-22}{\ampere\per\centi\meter\squared} and a readout noise of \SI…
In situ cryogenic characterization of proton damage in thick p-channel skipper CCDs
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago（芝加哥大学卡弗里宇宙物理学研究所）；Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory（费米国家加速器实验室）；Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago（芝加哥大学天文学与天体物理系）；Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign（伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校航空航天工程系）；Département de Physique, Université de Montréal（蒙特利尔大学物理系）；Brookhaven National Laboratory（布鲁克海文国家实验室）；Laboratory for Nuclear Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院核科学实验室）；Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory（劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室）；Universidad Nacional del Sur（南方国立大学）；Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Eléctrica “Alfredo Desages”, CONICET（阿尔弗雷多·德萨格斯电气工程学院研究所，阿根廷国家科学研究委员会）；Departamento de Física, Universidad de Buenos Aires（布宜诺斯艾利斯大学物理系）；Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires, Universidad de Buenos Aires/CONICET（布宜诺斯艾利斯物理研究所，布宜诺斯艾利斯大学/阿根廷国家科学研究委员会）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University（石溪大学物理与天文学系）；C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stony Brook University（石溪大学陈省身理论物理研究所）
Fully-depleted thick silicon Skipper-charge-coupled devices (Skipper-CCDs) are an important technology to probe neutrino and light-dark-matter interactions due to their sub-electron read-out noise. However, the successful search for rare neutrino or dark-matter events requires the signal and all backgrounds to be fully characterized. In particular, a measurement of the electron-hole pair creation energy below 150 eV and the Fano factor are necessary for characterizing the dark matter and neutrino signals. Moreover, photons from background radiation may Compton scatter in the silicon bulk, prod…
We use a science-grade Skipper Charge Coupled Device (Skipper-CCD) operating in a low-radiation background environment to develop a semi-empirical model that characterizes the origin of single-electron events in CCDs. We identify, separate, and quantify three independent contributions to the single-electron events, which were previously bundled together and classified as "dark counts": dark current, amplifier light, and spurious charge. We measure a dark current, which depends on exposure, of (5.89+-0.77)x10^-4 e-/pix/day, and an unprecedentedly low spurious charge contribution of (1.52+-0.07)…
The DAMIC-M (DArk Matter In CCDs at Modane) experiment employs thick, fully depleted silicon charged-coupled devices (CCDs) to search for dark matter particles with a target exposure of 1 kg-year. A novel skipper readout implemented in the CCDs provides single electron resolution through multiple non-destructive measurements of the individual pixel charge, pushing the detection threshold to the eV-scale. DAMIC-M will advance by several orders of magnitude the exploration of the dark matter particle hypothesis, in particular of candidates pertaining to the so-called "hidden sector." A prototype…
Image sensors with nondestructive charge readout provide single-photon or single-electron sensitivity, but at the cost of long readout times. We present a smart readout technique to allow the use of these sensors in visible-light and other applications that require faster readout times. The method optimizes the readout noise and time by changing the number of times pixels are read out either statically, by defining an arbitrary number of regions of interest (ROI) in the array, or dynamically, depending on the charge or energy of interest (EOI) in the pixel. This technique is tested in a Skippe…
Astronomical CCD systems based on second-generation DINACON controllers were developed at the SAO RAS Advanced Design Laboratory more than seven years ago and since then have been in constant operation at the 6-meter and Zeiss-1000 telescopes. Such systems use monolithic large-area CCDs. We describe the software developed for the control of a family of large-area CCD systems equipped with a DINACON-II controller. The software suite serves for acquisition, primary reduction, visualization, and storage of video data, and also for the control, setup, and diagnostics of the CCD system.
