Design name: MCC instrumentation Course- CCD images

date:3/16/08

Audience: 1st year MCC students

designers: Isar, Nick, Ciril

last update:9/16/08, added content goals, modified evidence

Goals:

Content:

How a CCD works:
- How light is collected in a CCD
- How the amount of light in each pixel is determined (readout)
  - Point spread, color, charge transfer eff., res. charge, reading noise, bad pixel, dead pixel, read time/precision trade off

Process:

Prototyping/modeling
- brainstorming ideas
- making drawings & schematics
- importance of model parameters &...
- realizing strengths and limitations of models
realize part/whole relationship
communicating ideas & results

Evidence:

Meaningful discussions, drawings and schematics, ability to share ideas on their prototype choices & justifying each piece. Models maintaining similarity to actual CCDs and can show the readout process

Activity description:

1) Basic demo with the photo diode (voltmeters as ADC)

-introduction to modeling as a concept w/ examples (planets & balls? water flow and electric current?)

-show a CCD camera & say the constraints about accessing the pixels in the model (confetti as light and other design parameters)

-groups (of 4) come up with ideas on what they need for building a model (brainstorm,...)

-do posters & tell & justify their ideas & the things they need for modeling

2) Start building their models in groups.

-if they are fast, there will be other examples of images/phenomena to model or have a more delicate model to accommodate that phenomena (dead pixels, saturation, charge transfer efficiency, residual charge, p-spread fct.)

-students present their models(justifying &telling about the limitations of the model they come up with)

-synthesis

-final survey (could be take home about digital images)