Guest Editorial

Charge -Coupled-Device and Charge- Injection- DeviceTheory and Application

James R. JanesickJet Propulsion LaboratoryCalifornia Institute of Technology4800 Oak Grove DrivePasadena, California 91109

This special issue of Optical Engineering is the third ofthree consecutive issues on charge -coupled devices.Papers contributed to this issue present various topicsrelated to theoretical aspects of the CCD and includethree papers discussing a close cousin of the CCD, thecharge- injection device (CID).

As with the other issues in this series, we also includehere a few papers that describe specific CCD -basedinstruments and that illustrate the diversity of CCD appli-cations. It becomes very apparent when reading the paperscollected in these issues that the CCD has made its great-est contribution in the area of scientific visible imaging.The sensor has become one of the most commonly useddetectors for ground -based astronomy. Only a dozenyears have passed since the first two -dimensional imagingCCDs were fabricated, and today there is no major tele-scope operated in the world that does not have a CCDcamera as part of its observing arsenal. At present, earth -based telescopes equipped with CCD cameras are beingused to detect objects fainter than 26th magnitude, some100 times fainter than the photographic limit of thePalomar 200 -inch telescope. Larger optical telescopes nowin the design phase (e.g., the 393 -inch Keck telescope)plan to use several new Tektronix 2048X2048 CCDs (seepaper by Blouke, Corrie, et al. in the September issue) attheir focal planes to push the seeing limit even farther.

CCDs will also be incorporated in most upcoming NASAflight missions. For example, eight 800X800 CCDs will beused in the Wide Field /Planetary Camera (WF /PC) on theHubble Space Telescope, a 90 -inch telescope ready forlaunch using the Space Shuttle to study the universe over a10 -year period. The WF /PC instrument has the potentialto see 10 times farther than most ground -based CCDcameras, thereby allowing astronomers to observe almostto the edge of the universe some 1023 miles away. Closer tohome, the Galileo mission to Jupiter utilizes a single800X800 CCD and will study in detail the Jovian systemover a 5 -year period. Other proposed NASA missions tothe sun (HRSO), Mars (Mars Observer), Saturn (Cassini),

and a comet and asteroid (CRAF) all plan to fly CCDcameras as part of their scientific payloads. Recently therehas been a great deal of interest in using CCDs for imagingin the soft x -ray part of the electromagnetic spectrum.CCDs have been chosen as detectors for the AdvancedX -ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), a future NASA missionto be launched a decade from now to study the universe inthe x -ray (see papers by Luppino et al. and Doty et al. inthis issue).

Ironically, the United States (inventor of the CCD) up tothis point has not flown a scientific CCD imaging camera,although other countries have successfully done so (seepaper by Seige and Ress in this issue). For example, ESA'sGiotto, a European mission flown last year, produced out-standing CCD images of comet Halley's nucleus. CCDimagers were also used by the Russians and Japanese tostudy this famous comet. It is hoped that by the end of thisdecade one or more American -based instruments (e.g.,WF /PC and Galileo) also will be operating in space.

Closer to home, CCDs now serve as detectors in a hostof laboratory instruments (see papers by Naday et al. on"Detector with charge -coupled- device sensor for proteincrystallography with synchrotron x rays" and Yates et al.on "Characterization of electro -optic anomalies associatedwith transient response of fast readout charge -coupleddevices," both in the August issue, and also the paper byTincknell et al. on "Fast megapixel charge- coupled-device image acquisition and analysis system for highenergy nuclear physics" in this issue). The list of applica-tions for CCDs in the laboratory is already extensive andcontinues to grow.

While CCDs enable the development of many excitinginstruments, there remain impediments to their use. CCDsare still very expensive; a backside -illuminated 2048X2048CCD presently lists for $80,000, or 19 cents per pixel.Devices with standard TV resolution range from $2,000 to$10,000 (1.2 to 6 cents per pixel), depending on theirperformance and quality. Perhaps the most significantdisadvantage of CCDs is the amount of ancillary electron-

OPTICAL ENGINEERING / October 1987 / Vol. 26 No. 10 / 963

Guest Editorial

Charge-Coupled-Device and Charge-Injection-Device Theory and Application

James R. JanesickJet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology 4800 Oak Grove Drive Pasadena, California 91109

This special issue of Optical Engineering is the third of three consecutive issues on charge-coupled devices. Papers contributed to this issue present various topics related to theoretical aspects of the CCD and include three papers discussing a close cousin of the CCD, the charge-injection device (CID).

As with the other issues in this series, we also include here a few papers that describe specific CCD-based instruments and that illustrate the diversity of CCD appli­ cations. It becomes very apparent when reading the papers collected in these issues that the CCD has made its great­ est contribution in the area of scientific visible imaging. The sensor has become one of the most commonly used detectors for ground-based astronomy. Only a dozen years have passed since the first two-dimensional imaging CCDs were fabricated, and today there is no major tele­ scope operated in the world that does not have a CCD camera as part of its observing arsenal. At present, earth- based telescopes equipped with CCD cameras are being used to detect objects fainter than 26th magnitude, some 100 times fainter than the photographic limit of the Palomar 200-inch telescope. Larger optical telescopes now in the design phase (e.g., the 393-inch Keck telescope) plan to use several new Tektronix 2048X2048 CCDs (see paper by Blouke, Corrie, et al. in the September issue) at their focal planes to push the seeing limit even farther.

CCDs will also be incorporated in most upcoming NASA flight missions. For example, eight 800X800 CCDs will be used in the Wide Field/Planetary Camera (WF/PC) on the Hubble Space Telescope, a 90-inch telescope ready for launch using the Space Shuttle to study the universe over a 10-year period. The WF/PC instrument has the potential to see 10 times farther than most ground-based CCD cameras, thereby allowing astronomers to observe almost to the edge of the universe some 10 23 miles away. Closer to home, the Galileo mission to Jupiter utilizes a single 800X800 CCD and will study in detail the Jovian system over a 5-year period. Other proposed NASA missions to the sun (HRSO), Mars (Mars Observer), Saturn (Cassini),

and a comet and asteroid (CRAF) all plan to fly CCD cameras as part of their scientific payloads. Recently there has been a great deal of interest in using CCDs for imaging in the soft x-ray part of the electromagnetic spectrum. CCDs have been chosen as detectors for the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), a future NASA mission to be launched a decade from now to study the universe in the x-ray (see papers by Luppino et al. and Doty et al. in this issue).

Ironically,the United States (inventor of theCCD)upto this point has not flown a scientific CCD imaging camera, although other countries have successfully done so (see paper by Seige and Ress in this issue). For example, ESA's Giotto, a European mission flown last year, produced out­ standing CCD images of comet Halley's nucleus. CCD imagers were also used by the Russians and Japanese to study this famous comet. It is hoped that by the end of this decade one or more American-based instruments (e.g., WF/PC and Galileo) also will be operating in space.

Closer to home, CCDs now serve as detectors in a host of laboratory instruments (see papers by Naday et al. on "Detector with charge-coupled-device sensor for protein crystallography with synchrotron x rays" and Yates et al. on "Characterization of electro-optic anomalies associated with transient response of fast readout charge-coupled devices," both in the August issue, and also the paper by Tincknell et al. on "Fast megapixel charge-coupled- device image acquisition and analysis system for high energy nuclear physics" in this issue). The list of applica­ tions for CCDs in the laboratory is already extensive and continues to grow.

While CCDs enable the development of many exciting instruments, there remain impediments to their use. CCDs are still very expensive; a backside-illuminated 2048X2048 CCD presently lists for $80,000, or 19 cents per pixel. Devices with standard TV resolution range from $2,000 to $10,000 (1.2 to 6 cents per pixel), depending on their performance and quality. Perhaps the most significant disadvantage of CCDs is the amount of ancillary electron-

OPTICAL ENGINEERING / October 1987 / Vol. 26 No. 10 / 963Downloaded From: https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/journals/Optical-Engineering on 20 May 2020Terms of Use: https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/terms-of-use

ics needed to make them work. Prime among these acces-sories is a powerful computer. CCD cameras generateenormous amounts of high quality data, often placingsignificant data processing demands on the user. Forexample, a single 2048X2048 CCD image holds the sameinformation as a 7- million -word book (equivalent to about6 encyclopedias). These data have to be stored, calibrated,and analyzed, a very expensive enterprise. Finally, a CCDinstrument requires a support team that must include avariety of electronics and software talent. Nevertheless,because of their attributes, CCDs are attracting an ever-expanding scientific user community, and this trend willsurely continue as CCDs and computers become moreeconomical to acquire and operate.

I would again like to express my thanks to the manyauthors and coauthors who have shared their CCD expe-riences in these special issues. I want to especially thankJack Gaskill, Martha Stockton, Eric Pepper, and their stafffor producing the issues you now read. I express myappreciation to Deborah Durham, who persevered in thereceipt, review, revision, and acceptance of the 44 papers

that appear in these issues. Finally, I want to thank AndyCollins, Chris Stevens, Bob Lockhart, and Kane Casani, mymanagement staff here at JPL, for supporting this effortfrom beginning to end.

James R. Janesick was born in Orange, Cali-fornia, in 1947. He received his master's degreein electronic engineering from the Universityof California at Irvine, majoring in lasers andmasers. Since January 1973 he has beenworking at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory /Cali-fornia Institute of Technology developingcharge -coupled devices for the Wide Field/Planetary Camera for the Hubble Space Tele-scope, Galileo Solid State Imaging Camera,and other NASA space imaging systems. He is

author of 15 papers on the subject of CCDs, has contributed to severalNASA tech briefs, and holds three patents on various CCD innovations.He received the Exceptional Engineering Achievement medal fromNASA in 1982 and a NASA Achievement Award in 1986. He is currentlyinvolved in the development of narrow -band -gap monolithic CCD sen-sors for infrared and x -ray imaging space instruments.

964 / OPTICAL ENGINEERING / October 1987 / Vol. 26 No. 10

ics needed to make them work. Prime among these acces­ sories is a powerful computer. CCD cameras generate enormous amounts of high quality data, often placing significant data processing demands on the user. For example, a single 2048X2048 CCD image holds the same information as a 7-million-word book (equivalent to about 6 encyclopedias). These data have to be stored, calibrated, and analyzed, a very expensive enterprise. Finally, a CCD instrument requires a support team that must include a variety of electronics and software talent. Nevertheless, because of their attributes, CCDs are attracting an ever- expanding scientific user community, and this trend will surely continue as CCDs and computers become more economical to acquire and operate.

I would again like to express my thanks to the many authors and coauthors who have shared their CCD expe­ riences in these special issues. I want to especially thank Jack Gaskill, Martha Stockton, Eric Pepper, and their staff for producing the issues you now read. I express my appreciation to Deborah Durham, who persevered in the receipt, review, revision, and acceptance of the 44 papers

that appear in these issues. Finally, I want to thank Andy Collins, Chris Stevens, Bob Lockhart, and Kane Casani, my management staff here at JPL, for supporting this effort from beginning to end.

James R. Janesick was born in Orange, Cali­ fornia, in 1947. He received his master's degree in electronic engineering from the University of California at Irvine, majoring in lasers and masers. Since January 1973 he has been working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Cali­ fornia Institute of Technology developing charge-coupled devices for the Wide Field/ Planetary Camera for the Hubble Space Tele­ scope, Galileo Solid State Imaging Camera, and other NASA space imaging systems. He is

author of 15 papers on the subject of CCDs, has contributed to several NASA tech briefs, and holds three patents on various CCD innovations. He received the Exceptional Engineering Achievement medal from NASA in 1982 and a NASA Achievement Award in 1986. He is currently involved in the development of narrow-band-gap monolithic CCD sen­ sors for infrared and x-ray imaging space instruments.

964 / OPTICAL ENGINEERING / October 1987 / Vol. 26 No. 10Downloaded From: https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/journals/Optical-Engineering on 20 May 2020Terms of Use: https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/terms-of-use