Beating the 1/f noise limit on charge coupled devices

Scientific CCD detectors are typically readout using the Correlated Double Sampling (CDS) technique. At low pixel rates, noise of ~2e- RMS is typically achieved. The limitation for reaching lower noise comes from the 1/f component on the output of the CCD, and this noise cannot be eliminated using CDS. A new readout technique based on a digital filter is presented here for suppressing the 1/f. Using this new technique a noise of 0.4e- is achieved.