Charge-coupled-device imagers

The purpose of this paper is to review recent progress in visible imaging devices which use the charge-coupled concept and to discuss applications of these devices. Recent experiments have yielded experimental data on bulk trapping phenomena in buried-channel devices. Also experimental data is available on low-noise readout/amplification techniques. Since the understanding of noise in CCD´s is now rather complete, the subject is reviewed, and the significance of each noise source will be discussed. The loss of information due to aliasing and prefiltering is discussed. Tradeoffs between high MTF Versus prefiltering are formulated from an analytical point of view, and imagery is shown to elucidate the tradeoffs. Time-delay-and integration sensors are discussed, and finally trade-offs between integrating arrays (frame transfers, interline transfer and the CID) are discussed.