The Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope: detector characterization and readout electronics testing

The Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) is one of the payloads onboard the Aditya-L1 mission. It will perform full disc imaging of the Sun in the near-ultraviolet (UV) wavelength range of 200-400 nm. This provides near-simultaneous observations of the Sun from the photosphere and chromosphere. A back-illuminated, enhanced UV charge coupled device (CCD) of size 4096 (H) × 4136 (V) pixels, with a pixel size of 12 μm, is used as an imaging element in SUIT. The CCD characterization and the readout electronics development and testing were performed in-house at the Space Astronomy Group, U R Rao Satellite Centre, ISRO. The test set-up and procedures are explained and the measured values of various parameters including noise, dark current, gain, linearity, and cross-talk are presented in this paper. The results show a satisfactory performance from the CCD as well as the readout electronics to meet the specifications required by the SUIT payload.