Methods for CCD Camera Characterization

^Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories, MS:62-203, One Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94270, USA, *Faculty of Applied Physics, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.

In this paper we present methods for characterizing CCD cameras. Interesting properties are linearity of photometric response, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), sensitivity, dark current, and spatial frequency response (SFR). The techniques to characterize CCD cameras are carefully designed to assist one in selecting a camera to solve a certain problem.

The methods described were applied to a variety of cameras:

• Astromed TE3/A with P86000 chip,
• Photometrics CC200 series with Thompson chip TH7882,
• Photometric CC200 series with Kodak chip KAF1400,
• Xillix' Micro Imager 1400 with Kodak chip KAF1400,
• HCS MXR CCD with a Philips' chip, and,
• Sony XC-77-RR-CE.

e-mail: young@ph.tn.tudelft.nl