Performance of a silicon vidicon at low signal levels

An integrating camera based on a cooled silicon vidicon detector is briefly described. A treatment is given of the capacitive lag which limits the performance for small signals. The remedy is to alter the cathode voltage after erase to place a pedestal of about 10(5) electrons/pixel under the signal. Test results indicate that the background noise level cannot be reduced below 600 electrons/pixel in a processed frame, and values may approach 1000. Despite these limitations, the vidicon is found to be a useful and sensitive detector.