Experiments with synchronized sCMOS cameras

Iain A. Steele; Helen Jermak; Chris M. Copperwheat; Robert J. Smith; Saran Poshyachinda; Boonrucksar Soonthorntham

doi:10.1117/12.2232349

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27 July 2016 Experiments with synchronized sCMOS cameras

Iain A. Steele, Helen Jermak, Chris M. Copperwheat, Robert J. Smith, Saran Poshyachinda, Boonrucksar Soonthorntham

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Proceedings Volume 9915, High Energy, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy VII; 991522 (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2232349
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2016, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Abstract

Scientific-CMOS (sCMOS) cameras can combine low noise with high readout speeds and do not suffer the charge multiplication noise that effectively reduces the quantum efficiency of electron multiplying CCDs by a factor 2. As such they have strong potential in fast photometry and polarimetry instrumentation. In this paper we describe the results of laboratory experiments using a pair of commercial off the shelf sCMOS cameras based around a 4 transistor per pixel architecture. In particular using a both stable and a pulsed light sources we evaluate the timing precision that may be obtained when the cameras readouts are synchronized either in software or electronically. We find that software synchronization can introduce an error of ~ 200-msec. With electronic synchronization any error is below the limit (~ 50-msec) of our simple measurement technique.

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Iain A. Steele, Helen Jermak, Chris M. Copperwheat, Robert J. Smith, Saran Poshyachinda, and Boonrucksar Soonthorntham "Experiments with synchronized sCMOS cameras", Proc. SPIE 9915, High Energy, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy VII, 991522 (27 July 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2232349

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