Spectral density of noise in CCDs

Abstract

Good agreement between theory and measurements is obtained for the spectral density of transfer noise which is the dominant noise source in a SCCD. Within a frequencyband small compared to the baseband of the CCD the achievable signal-to-noise ratio S/N is limited by the noise power in that small frequency range and not by the mean square value. Our considerations show that the spectral density of noise power of a CCD is inverse proportional to the clock frequency fC. Therefore increasing fCimproves the S/N-ratio and enhances the performance of the CCD in band-limited analog communication systems.