Delta-doped EMCCDs for sub-orbital and space based missions

Gillian Kyne; Shouleh Nikzad; April D. Jewell; Samuel Cheng; Todd J. Jones; John Hennessy; Michael Hoenk

doi:10.1117/12.2561975

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13 December 2020 Delta-doped EMCCDs for sub-orbital and space based missions

Gillian Kyne, Shouleh Nikzad, April D. Jewell, Samuel Cheng, Todd J. Jones, John Hennessy, Michael Hoenk

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Proceedings Volume 11454, X-Ray, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy IX; 114541I (2020) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2561975
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2020, Online Only

Abstract

Scientists are constantly pushing the boundaries, discovering new frontiers of exploration of the Universe; as space missions pursue these challenges it places a greater demand on detector technology advancement. I will present the status of our delta-doped Electron Multiplying CCD (EMCCD) for a UV multi-object spectrograph, the Faint Intergalactic Redshifted Emission Balloon (FB-2). FB-2 demonstrates this new technology, in a low risk suborbital environment, to prove the performance of EMCCDs for future space missions and Technology Readiness Level (TRL) advancement. It uses a new generation controller for counting photons from Nuvucameras. Part of this endeavor will be testing EMCCDs in a radiation environment; initial results will presented in this paper. EMCCDs have proven to be a versatile technology due to its photon counting (PC) capabilities to achieve extremely low readout noise (<< 1 electron). I will present results from the most recent flight and recent noise optimization.

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Gillian Kyne, Shouleh Nikzad, April D. Jewell, Samuel Cheng, Todd J. Jones, John Hennessy, and Michael Hoenk "Delta-doped EMCCDs for sub-orbital and space based missions", Proc. SPIE 11454, X-Ray, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy IX, 114541I (13 December 2020); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2561975

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