Eur. Phys. J. AP 21, 75-80 (2003)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap:2002103

CCD or CMOS camera noise characterisation

¹ Groupe d'Optique Appliquée, Laboratoire Phase, 23 rue du Loess, 67200 Strasbourg, France
² Laboratoire des Sciences de l'Image, de l'Information et de la Télédétection, École Nationale Supérieure de Physique, Bd. Sébastien Brand, 67400 Illkirch, France

Corresponding authors: yann.reibel@free.fr Bernard.Cunin@phase.c-strasbourg.fr

Received: 26 February 2001
Revised: 3 January 2002
Accepted: 28 March 2002
Published online: 29 November 2002

Abstract

To achieve optimum imaging performance, any camera system has to be thoroughly checked before being used, particular care being given in evaluating the different contributions due to noise. Our work presents a method for characterising the different sources of noise affecting CCD or CMOS cameras, emphasising the too often overlooked pattern noise. This method is an extended and theoretical approach of the well-known photon transfer technique [1]. Experimentation on our high speed CCD imager illustrates this approach.