High-speed CCD camera at NAOC

Abstract

A high speed CCD camera has been completed at the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC). A Kodak CCD was used in the camera. Two output ports are used to read out CCD data and total speed achieved 60M pixels per second. The Kodak KAI-4021 image sensor is a high-performance 2Kx2K-pixel interline transfer device. The 7.4μ square pixels with micro lenses provide high sensitivity and the large full well capacity results in high dynamic range. The inter-line transfer structure provides high quality image and enables electronic shuttering for precise exposure control. The electronic shutter provides a method of precisely controlling the image exposure time without any mechanical components. The camera is controlled by a NIOS II family of embedded processors, which is Altera's second-generation soft-core embedded processor for FPGAs. The powerful embedded processors make the camera with splendid features to satisfy continuously appearing new observational requirements. This camera is very flexible and is easy to implement new special functions. Since FPGA and other peripheral logic signals are triggered by a single master clock, the whole system is perfectly synchronized. By using this technique the camera cuts off the noise dramatically.