Page 282 - Fundamentals of Light Microscopy and Electronic Imaging

THE CHARGE-COUPLED DEVICE (CCD IMAGER) 265

CCD operation
integration of photo-induced charge

CCD operation
parallel shift - 1 row

CCD operation
serial shift - 1 pixel to output

Figure 14-6
Sketch showing the concept of serial readout of a CCD. Pixels comprising the parallel and
serial registers of a CCD are represented as buckets containing varying amounts of signal
(water) being transported on two conveyor belts operating in stepwise fashion. When the
serial register is empty, the row of buckets at the edge of the parallel register transfers its
contents to the single row of empty buckets on the serial register, which moves its single row
of buckets to a measuring station (the amplifier and ADC) at the end of the conveyor. (Sketch
from Roper Scientific, Inc., with permission)