Development and characterization of a fast and low noise readout for the next generation x-ray charge-coupled devices

The broad energy response, low electronic read noise, and good energy resolution have made x-ray charge-coupled devices (CCDs) an obvious choice for developing soft x-ray astronomical instruments over the last half-century. They also come in large array formats with small pixel sizes, which make them a potential candidate for the next-generation astronomical x-ray missions. However, the next-generation x-ray telescopic experiments propose for significantly larger collecting area compared with the existing observatories to explore the low luminosity and high redshift x-ray universe that requires these detectors to have an order of magnitude faster readout. In this context, Stanford University (SU) in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has initiated the development of fast readout electronics for x-ray CCDs. At SU, we have designed and developed a fast and low noise readout module with the goal of achieving a readout speed of 5 Mpixel/s. We successfully ran a prototype CCD matrix of 512 x 512 pixels at 4 Mpixels/s. In this paper, we describe the details of the readout electronics and report the performance of the detectors at these readout speeds in terms of read noise and energy resolution. In the future, we plan to continue to improve the performance of the readout module and eventually converge to a dedicated application-specific integrated circuit or ASIC-based readout system to enable parallel readout of large array multinode CCD devices. (C) 2022 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

Automated summary

X-ray charge-coupled devices (CCDs) have been a popular choice for soft x-ray astronomical instruments due to their broad energy response, low electronic read noise, and good energy resolution. However, next-generation x-ray telescopic experiments require larger collecting area and faster readout speed. Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have collaborated on the development of fast readout electronics for x-ray CCDs, achieving successful results in terms of read noise and energy resolution.