Andor Technology iXon Ultra 897 User Manual page 37

ELECTRON MULTIPLYING CCDS
The shift register also has a series of electrodes (which are vertical, i.e. parallel to
the columns) that are used to transfer the charge packets, one element at a time, into
the output node of the 'on-chip' amplifier.
The output of the amplifier feeds the analog-to-digital converter (A/D), which in
turn converts each charge packet into a 14 / 16-bit binary number. Unlike Andor's
standard CCD detectors, the A/D converter on the iXon is located inside the camera
head
Readout Sequence of an EMCCD
In the course of readout, charge is moved vertically into the shift register, and then
horizontally from the shift register into the output node of the amplifier. The simple
readout sequence illustrated below (which corresponds to the default setting of the
Full Resolution Image binning pattern) allows data to be recorded for each
individual element on the CCD-chip. Other binning patterns are achieved by
summing charge in the shift register and/or the output node prior to readout. See
Horizontal and Vertical Binning below.
Section 3 . 1
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