A Comparison of the Noise Characteristics of EMCCDs and CMOS Image Sensors for Astronomical Lucky Imaging

Fox, Harry Thomas (2023). A Comparison of the Noise Characteristics of EMCCDs and CMOS Image Sensors for Astronomical Lucky Imaging. PhD thesis The Open University.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.00016488

Abstract

Over the last few decades, the improvements to CMOS image sensor technology have made it possible for them to be considered for high-precision astronomy applications. GravityCam, a new concept for a ground-based imaging instrument, is proposing an upcoming CMOS technology to achieve significantly higher image quality over a wide field of view compared to previous instruments using EMCCD cameras. Observing faint signals, such as lunar masses via gravitational lensing, requires the ability to measure extremely small changes in signal, and therefore controlling image sensor noise is extremely important. For this reason, investigations into clock-induced charge for EMCCDs and the readout noise in CMOS image sensors are completed in the thesis to see the impact of these noise sources on low signal observations. A simulation-based approach is taken to investigate how CMOS image sensor noise impacts the limiting magnitude of the instrument and what the expected star loss is for each given magnitude versus mean readout noise.

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