FEASIBILITY STUDY FOR A HIGH RESOLUTION MULTI-CCD TDI CAMERASYSTEM

THE PROPOSED STUDY WILL EVALUATE THE FEASIBILITY OF CONSTRUCTING A HIGH-RESOLUTION MULTI-CCD CAMERA SYSTEM (MCCS) FOR USE IN A TIME DELAYED INTEGRATION (TDI) IMAGING MODE FOR WIDE-FIELD ASTRONOMICAL IMAGING. THE MCCS WILL EMPLOY TEN, 1024 BY 1024 PIXEL CCDS ARRANGED IN A STAGGERED FORMAT TO PROVIDE A RESOLUTION WIDTH OF OVER ONE MILLION DETECTOR PIXELS. THE MCCS WILL INCREASE TEN-FOLD THE IMAGING FIELD OF VIEW OVER A CONVENTIONAL TDI CAMERA SYSTEM THAT EMPLOYS A SINGLE 1024 BY 1024 PIXEL CCD. THE MCCS PROVIDES A MORE PRACTICAL SOLUTION TO THE TDI RESOLUTION PROBLEM THAN CAMERA SYSTEMS RELYING ON A SINGLE LARGE FORMAT (2048 BY 2048) CCD. THE MCCS MAKES USE OF SMALLER FORMAT, COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE CCDS WHICH ARE PRODUCED IN HIGHER YIELDS THAN LARGE FORMAT CCDS. BECAUSE IT IS BASED ON AN EXPANDABLE NUMBER OF CCDS, THE MCCS CAN BEALTERED TO SATISFY THE DESIRED DEGREE OF RESOLUTION. THE READOUT OF SEVERAL CCDS IN PARALLEL RESULTS IN A HIGHER READOUT RATE PER SCAN LINE, EVEN IN SLOW-SCAN CAMERAS. IN PHASE I, A TWO-CCD TDI CAMERA SYSTEM WILL BE CONSTRUCTED TO EVALUATE THE MCCS CONCEPT AND TO DETERMINE THE TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR IMPLEMENTING A TEN-CCD CAMERA SYSTEM. THE ACCURACY OF OPTICAL ALIGNMENT, ABILITY TO REGISTER THE IMAGES FROM THE TWO CCDS, AND THE ABILITY TO PRECISELY CONTROL VERTICAL SHIFTING FOR TDI OPERATION WILL BE MEASURED.