Design of a Skipper CCD Focal Plane for the SOAR Integral Field Spectrograph

We present the development of a Skipper Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) focal plane prototype for the SOAR Telescope Integral Field Spectrograph (SIFS). This mosaic focal plane consists of four 6k \(\times\) 1k, 15 \(\mu\)m pixel Skipper CCDs mounted inside a vacuum dewar. We describe the process of pac...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2022-10
Main Authors: Edgar Marrufo Villalpando, Drlica-Wagner, Alex, Bonati, Marco, Bakshi, Abhishek, Vanessa Bawden de Paula Macanhan, Cancino, Braulio, Derylo, Gregory E, Estrada, Juan, Guillermo Fernandez Moroni, Fraga, Luciano, Holland, Stephen, Jonas, Michelle J, Lapi, Agustín, Moore, Peter, Plazas Malagón, Andrés A, Stefanazzi, Leandro, Tiffenberg, Javier
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amplifiers
Antireflection coatings
Charge coupled devices
Focal plane
Infrared radiation
Laboratory tests
Mosaics
Pixels
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We present the development of a Skipper Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) focal plane prototype for the SOAR Telescope Integral Field Spectrograph (SIFS). This mosaic focal plane consists of four 6k \(\times\) 1k, 15 \(\mu\)m pixel Skipper CCDs mounted inside a vacuum dewar. We describe the process of packaging the CCDs so that they can be easily tested, transported, and installed in a mosaic focal plane. We characterize the performance of \(\sim 650 \mu\)m thick, fully-depleted engineering-grade Skipper CCDs in preparation for performing similar characterization tests on science-grade Skipper CCDs which will be thinned to 250\(\mu\)m and backside processed with an antireflective coating. We achieve a single-sample readout noise of \(4.5 e^{-} rms/pix\) for the best performing amplifiers and sub-electron resolution (photon counting capabilities) with readout noise \(\sigma \sim 0.16 e^{-} rms/pix\) from 800 measurements of the charge in each pixel. We describe the design and construction of the Skipper CCD focal plane and provide details about the synchronized readout electronics system that will be implemented to simultaneously read 16 amplifiers from the four Skipper CCDs (4-amplifiers per detector). Finally, we outline future plans for laboratory testing, installation, commissioning, and science verification of our Skipper CCD focal plane.
ISSN:2331-8422