Hamamatsu 'sCCD and CMOS detectors feature high sensitivity and a wide dynamic range, making them suitable not only for high-precision scientific measurements (spectrophotometry, weak signal detection) but also for industrial applications.
Radiation detection with the most advanced type of CCD sensor uses a shaded interspace to store and read out the acquired charge - the so-called Interline Mask (a small covered area between the active pixels). The generated charge carriers are captured and stored in potential wells that are formed under the electrodes of the CCD sensor depending on the applied voltage. By gradually moving the charge from one well to an adjacent well, it is ejected to the edge of the chip where it is transformed into a voltage signal by a transducer.
Unlike CCD chips, where the signal is transferred from pixel to pixel and then converted into a voltage, CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) sensors transform the signal into a voltage directly inside each pixel.
There are two main groups of FFT(Full Frame Transfer) CCDs:
- Front-illuminated CCDs(front-illuminated CCDs)
- back-illuminated CCDs(back-thinnedCCDs ) providing higher quantum efficiency