CCD and IR array controllers

Robert W. Leach; Frank J. Low

doi:10.1117/12.395489

16 August 2000 CCD and IR array controllers

Robert W. Leach, Frank J. Low

Proceedings Volume 4008, Optical and IR Telescope Instrumentation and Detectors; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.395489
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2000, Munich, Germany

Abstract

A family of controllers has bene developed that is powerful and flexible enough to operate a wide range of CCD and IR focal plane arrays in a variety of ground-based applications. These include fast readout of small CCD and IR arrays for adaptive optics applications, slow readout of large CCD and IR mosaics, and single CCD and IR array operation at low background/low noise regimes as well as high background/high speed regimes. The CCD and IR controllers have a common digital core based on user- programmable digital signal processors that are used to generate the array clocking and signal processing signals customized for each application. A fiber optic link passes image data and commands to VME or PCI interface boards resident in a host computer to the controller. CCD signal processing is done with a dual slope integrator operating at speeds of up to one Megapixel per second per channel. Signal processing of IR arrays is done either with a dual channel video processor or a four channel video processor that has built-in image memory and a coadder to 32-bit precision for operating high background arrays. Recent developments underway include the implementation of a fast fiber optic data link operating at a speed of 12.5 Megapixels per second for fast image transfer from the controller to the host computer, and supporting image acquisition software and device drivers for the PCI interface board for the Sun Solaris, Linux and Windows 2000 operating systems.

Citation Download Citation

Robert W. Leach and Frank J. Low "CCD and IR array controllers", Proc. SPIE 4008, Optical and IR Telescope Instrumentation and Detectors, (16 August 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.395489

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