Advances in the development of ultra-large CCD controllers for the National Astronomical Observatory
July 13 11:11:17, 2023
[China Instrument Network Instrument Development] After three years of hard work and two rounds of bench testing, one of the key components for the development of an ultra-large CCD controller is the CCD controller bias voltage and clock drive circuit ASIC. Astronomical optics and infrared detection were recently performed at the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The successful development of the laboratory has enabled the National Astronomical Observatory to occupy an international advanced level in the development of CCD controllers, laying the foundation for the independent development of a large-scale CCD system in China.
CDA2 chip and its performance test circuit
With the development of optical telescopes to larger apertures and larger fields of view, the corresponding CCD detectors have also increased in scale requirements to billions, billions, or even more pixels, which has brought great challenges to the development of controllers. . CCD detectors must achieve excellent performance for astronomical observations. In addition to the excellent performance of the CCD device itself, the performance indicators of the controllers necessary for its operation are very important. After many years of efforts by astronomy detector technicians in various countries, the CCD controller used in astronomical observations has reached the limit of current technology in terms of image quality indicators. However, the traditional CCD controller technology has encountered difficulties when the scale of CCD pixels reaches the order of billions. This is because a multi-billion-dollar CCD controller is completed with a conventional technology, and its size will reach several tens of cubic meters, not to mention the crosstalk control among a large number of analog data channels, the huge power consumption, and the temperature of the observation environment. Control and other issues. Therefore, the support of billions of pixels and larger CCD controller technology has become the biggest technical problem and technology development direction for the development of astronomical optical detectors in the world. To increase the degree of integration of the circuit to reduce the volume is the only solution at present. All major astronomical CCD laboratories in the world have begun to develop ASICs for CCD controllers.
In order to meet the needs of China's large-scale astronomical optical infrared telescopes, under the support of the National Natural Science Foundation and special astronomy and finance programs, under the leadership of Wei Mingzhi, an internationally renowned CCD controller electronics expert, the National Astronomical Observatory’s laboratory for optical and infrared detectors has developed a CCD. Detector ASIC technology research. The research scheme is that the main circuit of the CCD controller is developed into two ASIC chips, namely a CCD controller bias and clock drive circuit ASIC (abbreviated as CDA) and a CCD signal processing circuit ASIC (abbreviated as SPA). After three years of research and experimentation in 2014, a new round of CDA tapes has been laboratory-tested to prove that it fully meets the design requirements. This shows that the National Observatory has independent intellectual property rights for the CCD controller bias and clock-driven ASIC CDA. Successfully developed.
The CDA chip provides all voltages and drive pulses required for CCD operation and is an important part of the CCD controller. The CDA chip developed this time inherited the classic performance of the astronomical CCD controller - the UCAM controller's excellent performance and quality. It is also a very versatile chip. Its flexibility makes it suitable for most of the world's CCD chips and CCD controller. It can be combined with the developing SPA to form a large-scale integrated multi-CCD system or an ultra-small single CCD controller. It can also be integrated as a single component into any CCD system. The high degree of integration makes the CCD controller more reliable and stable, and its power consumption is smaller and easier to develop. Currently, the version of the CDA chip is a version that is ready for mass production. It is easy to carry out low-cost repetitive production. It provides a low-cost, high-performance, highly-integrated dedicated chip for the development of scientific-grade CCD systems at home and abroad, opening up new Research and development methods.
The development of CDA is an advancement in the development of large-scale CCD controllers in China. It is used to implement large-scale CCD control such as space station optical surveying telescopes, large-scale optical infrared telescopes (12-meter caliber), southern maximum field optical infrared telescopes, and international 30-meter optical infrared telescopes. The development goals of the device have opened up bright prospects.
(Original Title: Progress Made in the Development of Super Large CCD Controllers at the National Astronomical Observatory)
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