A Sixteen Multiple-Amplifier-Sensing CCD and Characterization Techniques Targeting The Next Generation of Astronomical Instruments

This work presents a candidate sensor for future spectroscopic applications, such as a Stage-5 Spectroscopic Survey Experiment or the Habitable Worlds Observatory. This new type of CCD sensor features multiple in-line amplifiers at its output stage allowing multiple measurements of the same charge packet, either in each amplifier and/or in the different amplifiers. Recently, the operation of an 8-amplifier sensor has been experimentally demonstrated, and the operation of a 16-amplifier sensor is presented in this work. This new sensor enables a noise level of approximately 1ᵉ ₑ₌ₒ with a single sample per amplifier. Additionally, it is shown that sub-electron noise can be achieved using multiple samples per amplifier. In addition to demonstrating the performance of the 16-amplifier sensor, this work aims to create a framework for future analysis and performance optimization of this type of detectors. New models and techniques are presented to characterize specific parameters, which are absent in conventional CCDs and Skipper-CCDs: charge transfer between amplifiers and independent and common noise in the amplifiers, and their processing.