<!-- *** Custom HTML *** --> The development of the Skipper-charge-coupled devices (Skipper-CCDs) has been a major technological breakthrough for sensing very weak ionizing particles. The sensor allows to reach the ultimate sensitivity of silicon material as a charge signal sensor by unambiguous determination of the charge signal collected by each cell or pixel, even for single electron–hole pair ionization. Extensive use of the technology was limited by the lack of specific equipment to operate the sensor at the ultimate performance. A simple, single-board Skipper-CCD controller designed by the authors is presented and aimed for the operation of the detector in high sensitivity scientific applications. Our article describes the main components and functionality of the so-called low threshold acquisition controller together with experimental results when connected to a Skipper-CCD sensor. Measurements show unprecedented deep subelectron noise of 0.039erms−/pix by nondestructively measuring the charge 5000 times in each pixel.

A fully-digital algorithm to shape the spectrum of dead-time distortion in power inverters is presented. Dead-time is required to avoid short circuits of the power source by the legs of a power inverter due to the finite turn-on and turn-off times of the switches. Dead-time modifies the pulse widths of the PWM signal causing high harmonic distortion. The proposed approach is based on time-to-digital conversion of the pulse widths at the output of the power stage, and does not require to measure the sign of the current, which is the preferred approach for dead-time compensation algorithms. The parasitic capacitance of the switching devices distorts the switching waveform during dead-time, and its effects are also analyzed and corrected. Furthermore, the quantization noise produced by digital PWM is also reduced by the proposed approach and has a minimal computational cost. Hardware-in-the-loop simulations are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach and experimental results using an H-bridge voltage source inverter are included. A minimum THD+N of 0.027% was achieved for a 1 kHz input driving an inductive load.

The effect of dead-time on the spectrum of pulse-width modulated signals is analyzed in this paper. The study is valid for arbitrary, band-limited modulating signals, extending previous results in the literature. A simple distortion index is developed that can be used at the design stage to select dead-time or switching frequency based on maximum allowed distortion. Experimental results with various band-limited signals reveal a very good agreement between the theoretical results and the experiments.

Image sensors with nondestructive charge readout provide single-photon or single-electron sensitivity, but at the cost of long readout times. We present a smart readout technique to allow the use of these sensors in visible light and other applications that require faster readout times. The method optimizes the readout noise and time by changing the number of times pixels are read out either statically, by defining an arbitrary number of regions of interest in the array, or dynamically, depending on the charge or energy of interest in the pixel. This technique is tested in a Skipper CCD showing that it is possible to obtain deep subelectron noise, and therefore, high resolution of quantized charge, while dynamically changing the readout noise of the sensor. These faster, low noise readout techniques show that the skipper CCD is a competitive technology even where other technologies such as electron multiplier charge coupled devices, silicon photo multipliers, etc. are currently used. This technique could allow skipper CCDs to benefit new astronomical instruments, quantum imaging, exoplanet search and study, and quantum metrology.

A novel readout architecture that uses multiple nondestructive floating-gate amplifiers (FGAs) to achieve subelectron readout noise in a thick, fully depleted silicon detector is presented. This multiple-amplifier sensing charge-coupled device (MAS-CCD) can perform multiple independent charge measurements with each amplifier; measurements with multiple amplifiers can then be combined to further reduce the readout noise. This allows getting subelectron noise operation in less time compared with single-nondestructive-amplifier CCDs. The performance of this detector is demonstrated, emphasizing the ability to resolve individual quanta and to combine measurements across amplifiers to reduce readout noise. These characteristics make it a candidate technology for astronomical observations, quantum imaging, and low-energy interacting particles.

A real-time, digital algorithm for pulse width modulation (PWM) with distortion-free baseband is developed in this paper. The algorithm not only eliminates the intrinsic baseband distortion of digital PWM but also avoids the appearance of side-band components of the carrier in the baseband even for low switching frequencies. Previous attempts to implement digital PWM with these spectral properties required several processors due to their complexity; the proposed algorithm uses only several FIR filters and a few multiplications and additions and therefore is implemented in real time on a standard DSP. The performance of the algorithm is compared with that of uniform, double-edge PWM modulator via experimental measurements for several bandlimited modulating signals.