The Skipper is a special type of charge-coupled device (CCD) that allows pixel measurements with sub-electron noise levels due to its non-destructive readout operation. Over the last decade, these sensors have been used as particle detectors on a variety of experiments, such as the direct detection of galactic dark matter and neutrino experiments. Skipper CCD achieves low-noise by reading multiple times, and sequentially, the pixel charge packet, which translates to longer readout times. This becomes a limiting factor for those applications that require sub-electron detection and faster readout speeds. A novel analysis method for reducing the total pixel readout time is presented in this work. The method relies on analyzing the time-domain properties of the video signal including the clock feedthroughs and their shapes to optimize the clock transitions that define the pixel. The analysis technique is experimentally demonstrated using a standard scientific detector and also with a Skipper CCD with single photon sensitivity. In both cases the sensors are operated and readout using the Low Threshold Acquisition (LTA) controller with an updated firmware for faster clock sequencing. A good compromise between noise performance and total readout time was achieved. This will allows the use of the Skipper CCD and/or the LTA for astronomy, quantum imaging, and other applications that require faster readout times than previous uses of the sensor and the controller.
The development of the Skipper-charge-coupled devices (Skipper-CCDs) has been a major technological breakthrough for sensing very weak ionizing particles. The sensor allows to reach the ultimate sensitivity of silicon material as a charge signal sensor by unambiguous determination of the charge signal collected by each cell or pixel, even for single electron–hole pair ionization. Extensive use of the technology was limited by the lack of specific equipment to operate the sensor at the ultimate performance. A simple, single-board Skipper-CCD controller designed by the authors is presented and aimed for the operation of the detector in high sensitivity scientific applications. Our article describes the main components and functionality of the so-called low threshold acquisition controller together with experimental results when connected to a Skipper-CCD sensor. Measurements show unprecedented deep subelectron noise of 0.039 erms−/pix by nondestructively measuring the charge 5000 times in each pixel.
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