By placing, in vacuum, a stack of transmission dynodes (tynodes) on top of a CMOS pixel chip, a generic, digital, single free electron detector could be made with potentially a ps time resolution. Its essential element is the tynode: an ultra thin membrane, which emits, at the impact of an energetic electron on one side, a multiple of electrons at the other side. The tynode’s electron yields...
The Capacitive Division Image Readout (C-DIR) is a charge centroiding device for imaging microchannel plate detectors. It comprises a two-dimensional matrix of capacitively coupled electrodes which divide the event charge between four charge measurement nodes. C-DIR’s capacitive nature maintains the bandwidth of the fast MCP signal for event timing applications and places a low capacitive load...
Dust and particulate contamination monitoring is vital for sensitive equipment being launched into space. Sensitive surfaces such as optical subsystems are particularly vulnerable to the effects of contamination which would lead to performance degradation. Great care is required to monitor the cleanliness levels of the environments in which the subsystem resides during all phases of the...
SOPHIA (Solo PHoton Imaging Array) is a Single Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) array with built-in Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) and photon counting logic, designed at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL; Oxford, UK).
SOPHIA was designed to demonstrate the technologies needed for use in applications requiring high sensitivity or precise timing resolution. It achieves this through the use...
Interest in direct detectors for low-energy electrons has increased markedly in recent years. Detection of electrons in the energy range up to low tens of keV is important in techniques such as photoelectron emission microscopy (PEEM) and electron backscatter detection (EBSD) on scanning electron microscopes (SEMs). The PEEM technique is used both in the laboratory, with sample excitation by...
This paper details the characterisation of a P-channel and N-channel e2v Teledyne CCD204 before and after simultaneous cryogenic (153 K and 203 K) 6.5 MeV proton irradiation to 7.66 × 108 protons.cm2. Detailed trap location and energy analysis was performed pre- and post-irradiation, at a range of temperatures between 156 K and 203 K, highlighting formation, migration and annealing of traps...