Low threshold acquisition controller for skipper charge coupled devices

Abstract

In this work, the design and preliminary results of the first specially design Skipper-CCD controller, aimed for low threshold particle and astronomy experiments, is presented. The system integrates on a single board: the generation of the clock and bias signals for the sensor; four high-speed analog-to-digital converters to digitize the video channels of the CCD; Artix-7 FPGA to perform pixel calculation and board control; a front panel connector for all the signal inspection; and Ethernet port for full operation and data collection through standard network connection to a PC. The system has been fully tested and sample images were taken for both conventional and Skipper-CCDs.