System-level simulation of a X-ray imager with nonlinear gain and per-pixel digitizer: XPCS case study

A system-level model of a low-noise high-speed mega-pixel camera with gain compression for X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy experiments at the European XFEL is presented. The model comprises the full signal chain from the sensor element via amplifier/filter and digitizer to the memory. The influence of gain- and offset errors as well as noise on the experiment-relevant image fidelity and intensity correlation function is discussed and compensation techniques are developed. A case study demonstrates the achievable efficiency of the chosen system parameters.