Development of position-sensitive photon-counting imager for Ultra-Fast Astronomy

Albert Wai Kit Lau; Yan Yan Chan; Mehdi Shafiee; George F. Smoot; Bruce Grossan

doi:10.1117/12.2628864

29 August 2022 Development of position-sensitive photon-counting imager for Ultra-Fast Astronomy

Albert Wai Kit Lau, Yan Yan Chan, Mehdi Shafiee, George F. Smoot, Bruce Grossan

Proceedings Volume 12191, X-Ray, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy X; 121910Y (2022) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2628864
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2022, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Abstract

Traditional optical astronomy is limited to the measurement of transient signals at time scales greater than ∼ 1ms due to the readout speed of detectors and read noise limitations to sensitivity in short exposures. The Ultra-Fast Astronomy Project (UFA)1, 2 explores much faster events in the sub-millisecond domain. We designed a single-photon imaging camera based on position-sensitive silicon photomultiplier (PS-SiPM) with a low-cost FPGA readout system to observe such events. The sensor operates in a photon-counting mode with time resolution on the order of 10ns and a spatial resolution of around 200μm. We present our camera’s electronic and mechanical design, the algorithm for data handling, and testing and calibration data.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Albert Wai Kit Lau, Yan Yan Chan, Mehdi Shafiee, George F. Smoot, and Bruce Grossan "Development of position-sensitive photon-counting imager for Ultra-Fast Astronomy", Proc. SPIE 12191, X-Ray, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy X, 121910Y (29 August 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2628864

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