EMCCD / Electron Multiplying Charge Coupled Devices

Electron Multiplying Charge Coupled Devices (EMCCD) are a quantitative digital camera technology that can detect single photon events while maintaining high quantum efficiency. Built into the sensor of the EMCCD is a unique electron multiplying (EM) structure, which is added to the end of the normal serial register. The presence of this solid-state EM register enables weaker signals to be multiplied, producing less readout noise compared to the traditional Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs). Within this EM register is several hundred stages, each of which allows a charge to be transferred through and produce the phenomenon of impact ionization. Impact ionization allows the production of secondary electrons to occur over several hundred stages, producing a final resulting gain that can be further controlled with software technology.