CCD Characteristics Lab

Observational Astronomy

6/6/07

1 Introduction
In this laboratory exercise, you will be using the Hirsch Observatory’s CCD camera, a Santa
Barbara Instruments Group (SBIG) ST-8E. The operation of CCDs, or Charge Coupled De-
vices, can be understood on the basis of the photoelectric effect and semiconductor physics1 .
A CCD chip is based on the Metal2 Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) capacitor, which is also a
basic component of the MOSFET (MOS Field Effect Transistor). Indeed, CCD and com-
puter chips are manufactured on a silicon wafer in much the same way.
The MOS capacitors in a CCD create an electric potential maximum in the n-type region
of a p-n junction. This is a potential well for electrons (why?). When light falls on the CCD,
the incoming photons excite electrons into silicon’s conduction band in a classic example of
the photoelectric effect, thereby creating electron-hole pairs. The photoelectrons collect in
the potential well region, which prevents them from recombining with the holes. A structure
of channel stops and biased gate electrodes divides the CCD chip into pixels; the ST-8E has
9 × 9 micron pixels in a 1530 × 1020 array.
In a basic three-phase device, each pixel has three gates; during an exposure the center
gate is biased at a higher potential. Photoelectrons then collect in each pixel’s potential
well, as shown in Figure 1. When an exposure is completed and the camera shutter has
closed, the gate voltages in the device are cycled in a process called “clocking the gates.” A
side gate is biased to a higher potential, allowing the collected charge to spread over. The
center gate is then biased to a lower potential, leaving the charge centered on the side gate
(see Figure 2). Repeating this process eventually results in the transfer of collected charge
from one pixel to the next. The Charge Transfer Efficiency (CTE) is the percentage of
charge actually transferred from one pixel to the next. This value is quite high in modern
CCDs (> 99.999%), which is necessary considering how many times some of the charges are
transferred (think about it!).
The CCD reads out by shifting all the pixel columns down one row, with the row at
the edge being shifted into the serial register, a row of pixels that is never exposed to light.
The gates in the serial register are then clocked to transfer these pixels one at a time into
1
You remember Physics II, right?
2
In modern devices, polycrystalline silicon is used instead of metal.

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the output amplifier and other readout electronics, where the voltage associated with the
collected charge is amplified, measured, and converted into a digital number. The number
associated with each pixel is referred to as its counts or ADUs (analog-to-digital units).
(If the explanation above leaves you confused, there exists a helpful analogy for the
operation of a CCD. The incoming photons are rain, and the CCD chip is a 2D array of
buckets. Each bucket is a pixel, and the water it collects is the charge accumulation due
to photoelectrons. Once the rain has stopped (the shutter is closed), conveyor belts move
the columns of buckets down one row (the gates are clocked). The water in the buckets at
the edge of the array pours into more buckets on a horizontal conveyor belt (serial register).
This conveyor belt then pours these buckets one at a time into a graduated cylinder (output
amplifier). The volume of water from each bucket is rounded to the nearest milliliter (counts),
and you can then reconstruct the distribution of rainfall on the array (an image). See Figure
3 for an illustration.)
However, you should keep in mind that these “counts” are not direct counts of incoming
photons. The quantum efficiency (QE) is the fraction of photons that excite photoelectrons
and produce a count; it is a function of wavelength for each type of CCD3 . Furthermore, the
gain is the number of photoelectrons the analog-digital (A/D) converter needs to produce
one ADU (more on this below). Other factors contribute various types of noise to the signal.
In this lab, you will explore the following CCD characteristics4 .

read noise A CCD camera has several inherent sources of noise collectively referred to as
read noise. The output amplifier and other camera electronics generate both thermal
and flicker noise. Thermal
√ (white) noise results from the thermal motion of atoms
and electrons and has a T temperature dependence. Flicker (pink, or 1/f ) noise
results from trapped states in the semiconductor. There √ is also noise associated with
the process of clocking the CCD, which typically has a f dependence on clocking
frequency. Note that the levels of all these noise sources are independent of the signal
level.

dark current Over time, thermal excitation of electrons in the silicon builds up a signal
referred to as dark current. This is dealt with by taking dark frames with the same
exposure times as the light frames, but with the shutter closed. The dark frame
is then subtracted from the light frame, eliminating pixel-by-pixel variations due to
dark current. Dark current is also a source of Poisson noise. This noise cannot be
subtracted; dark subtraction in fact increases the overall noise level (why?). This
effect can be minimized by averaging several dark frames together. Still, the optimal
solution is to make the dark current itself (and therefore its Poisson noise) as small
as possible. Since dark current is extremely temperature dependent, CCDs are either
3
CCDs can have QEs of 40%–90% at visual and near-IR wavelengths, compared with around 1% for the
human eye and 5% for photographic film.
4
For more information, refer to http://www.ccd.com/ccdu.html;
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/digitalimaging/concepts/concepts.html;
http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/phys559/lectures/ccd1/ccd1.html.

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 equipped with thermoelectric cooling (as the ST-8E is) or cooled with liquid nitrogen
(as are most scientific instruments).

gain The number of collected electrons (really, the analog voltage their charge produces)
needed to read out one ADU is referred to as the gain of the system. A low gain
means less digitization noise, but also a lower effective well depth. This is due to the
limitations of the readout electronics; the ST-8E has a 16-bit A/D converter and can
therefore represent ADU counts from 0 to 216 − 1 = 65, 535. A very low gain may
result in A/D saturation before the actual full well capacity of the CCD (in electrons)
is reached, though full well saturation almost always happens first. Telltale signs of
saturation are “flat” image regions (where pixels have constant value) and streaks from
“blooming” stars (where charge has overflowed into neighboring pixels).

linearity A chief attraction of CCDs is their linear response to varying light levels, ide-
ally from the limits of detection to full well saturation. CCDs have a much wider
range of sensitivity (larger dynamic range) than photographic film, typically by one
or two orders of magnitude. In addition, their wide range of linearity means that the
brightnesses observed correspond to actual brightnesses. In a CCD, full well or A/D
saturation produces obvious effects, but nonlinearity does not. It is therefore very
important to note the range of your CCD’s linear behavior, or your scientific results
may turn out to be useless! It is interesting to note that the human eye is not linear
but logarithmic. This allows for a large dynamic range at the cost of the ability to
distinguish varying light levels. A linear CCD image contains much more information
than can be displayed on a computer screen or seen by the eye at one time; this is
why screen display settings (“screen stretch”) and image processing are so important
in bringing out various details.

2 Setup
After you have successfully connected to the camera, set the cooling to a reasonable value
(try −5◦ C) and wait for the temperature to stabilize. Meanwhile, you can do some setup
that will become useful later in the lab. Place a piece of plain white paper over the large
aperture attachment. It is best to place the paper on a desk, put the attachment down on
this, use black electrical tape to seal the paper to the attachment, and then trim off any
excess paper. Insert the covered end into the light box; you may need to press firmly to do
this. Now attach the camera, using the wooden blocks to support it. Use electrical tape on
the inside of the box to make a light-tight seal where the camera enters. Put the cover on
the box.
Throughout this lab, you want to avoid light leaks in the camera, which are possible even
with a closed shutter. Keep the room as dark as possible and point light sources, such as
computer screens, away from the camera. Also, be sure to check for temperature stability
throughout the lab. When analyzing your data, it is advisable to use Excel or MATLAB to
save time and effort.

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3 Read Noise
Record the CCD temperature. Take two bias frames, or images of zero seconds exposure5
with the shutter closed. After saving these images, subtract the second image from the first.
This process eliminates any overall gradients in the bias frame, leaving just the structure of
the noise. Since negative pixel values are set to zero, you must add a constant (try 1000)
before (CCDOps) or during (MaxIm DL) the subtraction. If the differenced image has pixel
values of zero, try again with a larger constant; otherwise, save the image.
Examine the differenced image to identify any hot pixels or other unusual features; ad-
justing the zoom and display settings can help bring out various details here. Then, measure
and record the standard deviation of the counts in a typical region (record the size of your
region as well). The central region from (510, 340) to (1020, 680) usually works well. How
does the added constant affect√this measurement? The read noise is then found by divid-
ing the standard deviation by 2 (why?). Keep in mind that this is the read noise for an
individual pixel.
For future measurements, you may want to set the camera to read out only part of the full
frame; CCDOps has the ability to only read out the central half or quarter of the chip. This
will shorten image download times dramatically but still provide a relatively large region for
measurement. You should continue to check for hot pixels, unusual regions, etc. Measure in
a smaller subframe to avoid these, if necessary.

4 Dark Current
Record the CCD temperature. Take a bias frame and save it. Then take and save a series of
dark frames (i.e., with the shutter closed), starting with an exposure time of 30 seconds and
proceeding to 300 seconds in 30 second increments. Subtract the bias frame from each of
the dark frames; you may need to add a constant to avoid negative pixel values. Once this
is done, measure and record the mean of the counts for each exposure time. Use the same
measurement region in all images, and remember to subtract the constant you added from
the means.
Make a plot of mean counts versus exposure time and fit a linear function. Sketch your
plot and record your fit parameters. The fit slope is the dark current in ADU/sec. You will
calculate the dark current in electrons/sec once you know the gain.

5 Linearity & Gain

For this part of the lab, you need to achieve a uniform illumination of the CCD. This is why
you put the paper over the aperture attachment earlier. Put a frosted bulb in the ceramic
stand and place it at the far end of the light box. Plug the light bulb stand into the variac
5
The ST-8E has a minimum exposure time of 0.12 seconds, which it automatically uses if you tell it to
take any shorter exposures.

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and set it to a low voltage (15 volts seems to work well; record what you actually use). Put
the cover back on the box; the cord goes up, over, and down at a corner of the box.
Record the CCD temperature. Now take and save a series of frames starting close to the
minimum exposure time and increasing in even increments until the camera saturates. (At
a variac setting of 15 volts, 0.2 seconds to about 6.4 seconds in increments of 0.2 seconds
seems to work well.) Saturation should be apparent from both the image (flat regions) and
its statistics (mean pixel value will stop increasing). Since the camera is cooled, you can
ignore the effects of dark current on these fairly short exposures. For each image, measure
and record the mean and standard deviation of the counts. Then calculate and record the
count variance.6
You now have the data needed to calculate the CCD’s gain. Because the gain relates the
number of collected electrons to ADUs, you know that

electrons = gain · µADU (1)

and that √
electrons = gain · σADU (2)
The second equation follows from the fact that electron counts (not ADU counts) follow
Poisson statistics. Squaring this equation, you find that

electrons = gain2 · σADU

2
. (3)

Setting Eqns. 1 and 3 equal and canceling a factor of gain, you conclude that
2
µADU = gain · σADU . (4)

Make a plot of mean counts versus count variance and sketch it on the worksheet. Note
where the linear regime ends; it may be earlier than you expect. Truncate your data to
remove the nonlinear regime and make (and sketch) another plot. Now fit a linear function
to this data; record your fit parameters. Following the derivation above, the slope gives the
gain, which you should record. The nonzero intercept is due to the read noise.
Speaking of read noise, you can now convert your measurement of it from ADUs to
electrons; record this value. You should also convert your measurement of the dark current
to electrons/sec and record that as well. You now know the rate of thermal electron excitation
in each pixel on the CCD chip (for a particular temperature).
Next, make and sketch a plot of mean counts versus exposure time. Note where the curve
flattens out; this is the CCD saturation count. Record your estimate for both this value and
the CCD’s full well capacity. You previously identified the linear regime in the process of
finding the gain; notice that it is not easy to identify the linear regime directly from this
plot. Estimate and record the size of the linear regime as a fraction of full well capacity.
Make and sketch another plot of mean counts versus exposure time, omitting the nonlinear
regime. You should fit a linear function to this data and record your fit parameters.
When you are all done working, be sure to properly warm up and shut down the camera.
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Remember, variance is just the square of standard deviation.

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6 Application: The Signal-to-Noise Ratio
Some of the quantities measured in this lab are useful when calculating the signal-to-noise
ratio (SNR) for astronomical observations. For a signal with no background or instru-
ment√noise, √
the collected photoelectrons follow Poisson statistics. This results in a SNR of
N∗ / N∗ = N∗ , where N∗ is the number of electrons from the the signal source (i.e., the
number of incoming photons times the quantum efficiency). Taking into account the other
main sources of noise, we can construct the so-called “CCD Equation,”
N∗
SN R = q , (5)
2
N∗ + npix · [Nsky + Ndark + Nread ]

where npix is the number of pixels under consideration, Nsky is the number of electrons from
the sky, Ndark is the number of electrons from the dark current, and Nread is the number of
electrons due to the read noise (these three N values are per pixel). Note that N∗ , Nsky , and
Ndark will depend on exposure time, while Nread will not. For high signal levels, the signal’s
Poisson
√ noise dominates over the other noise sources, and the SNR is again approximated
by N∗ . For low signal and/or high noise levels, a more complete version of this equation
can be found in §4.4 of Steve B. Howell’s Handbook of CCD Astronomy. Be sure to answer
the worksheet’s questions about the CCD Equation.

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Figure 1: When a CCD is exposed to light, incoming photons excite electrons,
which are then trapped in the potential wells of individual pixels. Image from
http://www.ing.iac.es/˜smt/CCD Primer/CCD Primer.htm.

Figure 2: By changing the gate bias potentials, charge is transfered laterally in the CCD.
Image from http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/˜piccard/radnotes/detectors.html.

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Figure 3: The “bucket brigade” analogy for CCD operation. Image from
http://www.ing.iac.es/˜smt/CCD Primer/CCD Primer.htm.