Noiseless imaging detector for adaptive optics with kHz frame rates

John V. Vallerga; Jason McPhate; Bettina Mikulec; Anton Tremsin; Allan Clark; Oswald Siegmund

doi:10.1117/12.553017

25 October 2004 Noiseless imaging detector for adaptive optics with kHz frame rates

John V. Vallerga, Jason McPhate, Bettina Mikulec, Anton Tremsin, Allan Clark, Oswald Siegmund

Proceedings Volume 5490, Advancements in Adaptive Optics; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.553017
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2004, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Abstract

A new hybrid optical detector is described that has many of the attributes desired for the next generation AO wavefront sensors. The detector consists of a proximity focused MCP read out by four multi-pixel application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips developed at CERN ("Medipix2") with individual pixels that amplify, discriminate and count input events. The detector has 512 x 512 pixels, zero readout noise (photon counting) and can be read out at 1kHz frame rates. The Medipix2 readout chips can be electronically shuttered down to a temporal window of a few microseconds with an accuracy of 10 nanoseconds. When used in a Shack-Hartman style wavefront sensor, it should be able to centroid approximately 5000 spots using 7 x 7 pixel sub-apertures resulting in very linear, off-null error correction terms. The quantum efficiency depends on the optical photocathode chosen for the bandpass of interest. A three year development effort for this detector technology has just been funded as part of the first Adaptive Optics Development Program managed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory.

Citation Download Citation

John V. Vallerga, Jason McPhate, Bettina Mikulec, Anton Tremsin, Allan Clark, and Oswald Siegmund "Noiseless imaging detector for adaptive optics with kHz frame rates", Proc. SPIE 5490, Advancements in Adaptive Optics, (25 October 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.553017

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