Orateur
Description
Skipper CCDs have introduced a qualitative leap in low-noise charge measurement by enabling non-destructive multiple readout of the same pixel. By averaging repeated measurements, the readout noise can be reduced to arbitrarily low levels, allowing the robust counting of single electrons. This capability has opened new opportunities in rare-event searches, in particular for low-mass dark matter detection. However, the serial readout architecture of CCDs imposes a major limitation: achieving sub-electron noise requires long acquisition times, with full-frame readout times reaching up to tens of hours for large sensors.
Skipper CMOS sensors aim to overcome this limitation by combining the single-electron sensitivity of Skipper architectures with the massively parallel readout capabilities of CMOS imagers. The goal is to reduce image acquisition times from hours to the millisecond scale while preserving ultra-low noise performance. Such a breakthrough would extend single-electron-sensitive imaging far beyond dark matter searches, enabling applications in quantum imaging, low-dose microscopy, soft X-ray and EUV imaging, low-light beam diagnostics, and photon-starved astronomical observations such as direct exoplanet searches.
In this talk, I will present the development of Skipper CMOS sensors within the PARIS-CMOS project (“Platform for Advanced Readout and Imaging with Skipper CMOS”), based on the fully depleted CMOS technology of the INFN ARCADIA platform. I will discuss the sensor concept, current prototype developments, and the prospects for achieving fast, large-area imagers with single-electron resolution.
| Contribution type | R&T |
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