a small-pixel CCD project

[roger smith x294]

Posted to CCD-world:
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John,

A very happy new year to you.

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> From ccd-world-request at niu.cfht.hawaii.edu Thu Jan  8 10:52 CDT 1998
> Date: Thu, 8 Jan 1998 08:50:07 -0500
> Mime-Version: 1.0
> To: ccd-world at cfht.hawaii.edu
> From: John Geary <geary at cfa.harvard.edu>
> Subject: a small-pixel CCD project
> Reply-To: CCD-world at cfht.hawaii.edu
> 
> Posted to CCD-world:
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> I am aware of a current project to make some new 1K X 4K CCDs (3-edge
> buttable) with 8 u pixels, for a Schmidt camera application requiring such
> resolution.  The devices will be thinned for backside illumination, with
> about 60% QE at 4000.  The developers are about $100k short on this contract
> and are looking for a partner.  Estimated yield for the partner would be in
> the 20-25 device range.  Anyone interested?
> 
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> For information about CCD-world, send email to owner-CCD-world at cfht.hawaii.edu.
> 

Our interest in joining a collaboration on the 1Kx4Ks could be enormous
or low depending on the details.  We are desperate to get good
spectroscopic CCDs.  I am waiting to see how various current CCD
devlopment projects pan out at EEV, SITe, and LBL (hi-rho).  I have
been nursing the idea of trying to organize a consortium to make the
ultimate spectroscopic CCD, if these don't come close enough to our
performance requirements.  

Excellent blue response and noise is a must, with good dark current and
CTE too, of course.

3K by 1K ~15um pixel CCD would be ideal.   A pair of 1Kx4K 8 um
buttable CCDs would cover slightly more than 2/3 of the spectral range
and all of the spatial.  We have another camera where a
single CCD binned to 2K by 500 is perfect.  Presumably 8um pixels
binned by two will eliminate the resolution loss in the blue that we
suffer with our current 15 um Lorals.  The lower full well of the 8 um
pixels wont matter much since we are talking spectroscopy.  We would
prefer to put the serial register on the long dimension but I guess
this is not in the plans.

What is the expectation for noise?  I don't have a chance of raising
money unless we can safely acheive 3 e- or better.  We really want
something like 1.5e- for which we would prefer a high output node
sensitivity but we could live with a skipper with a read noise of 3 e-
before skipping.

How about more details on QE?  Are we talking about a Lesser-thinned
and UV flooded chip?

When you say "Schmidt camera" do you mean spectrograph camera or wide
field imager.....It would be nice to know if "the project you know of"
shares similar objectives to us.  Are we allowed to know of them too?
(:-).

Does the cost include thinning & packaging?   How much if any
screening/testing?

Yeild of 20-25 devices:  is this thinned and packaged?!  That would be
an incredible bargain for 100K.  We've never had a foundry run that has
been that successful, so I will meet considerable scepticism unless
they can provide a plausible justification for this yeild.

Who is the manufacturer likely to be?

 

Do we need to talk by phone?


Roger














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