RUI: Acquisition and Development of Large Area CCD Imaging Sensors

该合同支持在圣地亚哥州立大学芒特拉古纳天文台购买几个像素电荷耦合器件(CCD)传感器，以支持地面光学观测。其中几个将不变薄，一个将变薄并涂上抗反射涂层，以增强蓝色和紫外线的敏感度。它们将由福特航空航天铸造厂按照科学应用国际公司(SAIC)的设计制造。圣地亚哥州立大学将协助SAIC对CCD进行测试和表征，以选择要交付的设备，并帮助SAIC开发改进的设备并确定其性能特征范围。变薄的传感器将提供更高的量子效率，探测器面积比目前可用的TI传感器大9.4倍。这些CCD将由圣地亚哥州立大学设计的象限读出相机控制器以及双处理器仪器控制和图像处理计算机系统控制。变薄的CCD将用于三个正在进行的观测项目--博克球体的光学和近红外成像，恒星中等离子体物理的研究，以及对外部星系中新星的搜索和监测。

This award supports the acquisition of several pixel charge- coupled device (CCD) sensors in support of ground-based optical observing at San Diego State University's Mount Laguna Observatory. Several of these will be unthinned and one will be thinned and anti-reflection coated for enhanced blue and ultraviolet sensitivity. They will be manufactured by the Ford Aerospace foundry following Science Applications International Corporation's (SAIC) design. San Diego State will assist SAIC in the testing and characterization of the CCD's in selecting the devices for delivery, as well as to help SAIC develop improved devices and to determine their range of performance characteristics. The thinned sensor will provide improved quantum efficiency and a factor of 9.4 larger detector area than the currently available TI sensor. The CCD's will be controlled by a quadrant readout camera controller designed at San Diego State, and by a dual processor instrument control and image processing computer system. The thinned CCD will be targeted to three ongoing observational programs - the optical and near infrared imaging of Bok globules, studies of the physics of plasmas in stars, and a search for and monitoring of novae in external galaxies.