Articles & Reviews

Charge Coupled Device (CCD)

• Charge Coupled Device: one of the two main types of image sensors used in digital cameras. When a picture is taken, the CCD is struck by light coming through the camera’s lens. Each of the thousands or millions of tiny pixels that make up the CCD convert this light into electrons. The number of electrons, usually described as the pixel’s accumulated charge, is measured, then converted to a digital value. This last step occurs outside the CCD, in a camera component called an analog-to-digital converter.
  www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/digitalphotography/glossary/default.asp

• Charge-coupled device, a very sensitive electronic device that is revolutionizing astronomy in the 1990s. CCD cameras are composed of silicon chips that are sensitive to light, changing detected photons of light into electronic signals that can then be used to make images of astronomical objects or to analyze how much light is being received from such objects. CCDs require computers for reduction of data, so the expense can be much greater than for, say, photography --- but CCDs can detect much fainter objects than can photographs. Unfiltered CCDs tend to be more red-sensitive than the human eye.
  cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/ps/icq/ICQGlossary.html

• Charge-coupled device. A light-sensitive silicon chip often used as a photodetector in digital camera systems. CCDs are manufactured in a wide variety of formats, architectures, and grades. See CCD readout.
  www.photomet.com/library_glossary.shtml

• Charge Coupled Device. A video image sensor chip. More details...
  www.cctvconsult.com/glossary.htm

• Charge Coupled Device
  lasco-www.nrl.navy.mil/acronym.html

• Charge-coupled device. An integrated, micro-electrical light sensing device built into some image capturing devices.
  www-rohan.sdsu.edu/glossary.html

• (Charge-Controlled-Device). A semiconductor element commonly used for electronic light detection or imaging. Converts the photon energy of light to electrical charge for electronic processing.
  www.audio-direct.com/questions/feature_guide/definitions_byletter.htm

• Charge-Coupled Device; a light-sensitive chip or image sensor used in scanners and digital cameras that converts light into proportional (analogue) electrical current. The A-D converter converts analogue signals into pixel values.
  www.chin.gc.ca/English/Digital_Content/Small_Museum/glossary_main.html

• Charge Coupled Device. A semiconductor light detector which converts light to electrical impulses. Such detectors are used by a number of the instruments on SOHO, including EIT, LASCO, and MDI. more!
  sohowww.estec.esa.nl/explore/glossary.html

• Short for charged coupled device; a mechanism that converts light into a proportional (analog) electrical current; the two main types of CCD are linear arrays, used in flatbed scanners and digital copiers, and area arrays, found in camcorders, digital cameras, and the like.
  electronics.cnet.com/electronics/0-1629008-7-2643634.html

• Charge-Coupled Device; an optical-electrical sensor.
  www.siemensauto.com/glossaries/its_glossary.html

• Charge Coupled Device. A light sensitive solid-state detector that generates a voltage which is proportional to the intensity of illumination. Arrays of CCDs make up pushbroom scanners.
  www.unesco.org/csi/pub/source/rs15.htm

• Charge Coupled Device; An array (linear or matrix) of transductive elements wherein packets of electrons are set in each element as a result of the quantity of light received during an exposure interval, and where these packets are recovered from the array in the form of a pulse height-modulated electric signal.
  www.autoid.org/dunesysglossary.html

• Charge-Coupled Device
  www.allaboutmems.com/glossary.html

• The computer chip in video cameras that converts light images into an electronic signal.
  www.bavc.org/glossary.htm

• Charge Coupled Device. A type of sensor used in most high-quality digital cameras.
  www.meijer.com/photo/glossary.html

• Charge-coupled device.
  www.mojavesolar.com/Glossary.html

• CCD stands for charge-coupled device. A CCD is a detector made on a silicon wafer. Due to the physical nature of silicon, photons of light that hit it generate electrons in the silicon. The job of the CCD is to collect these electrons in its "light buckets" (called pixels) during the length of the exposure to light. The more light falling on a particular "light bucket" or pixel, the more electrons that pixel will contain. The buckets then transfer their electrons (think 'water bucket brigade') out to the CCD controller (which contains the electronics to control the CCD) and on to the computer. The computer regenerates the image and voila!
  www.itl.arizona.edu/Education%20and%20Links/glossary.htm

• Charge-coupled device, a very sensitive electronic device that is revolutionizing astronomy in the 1990s. CCD cameras are composed of silicon chips that are sensitive to light, changing detected photons of light into electronic signals that can then be used to make images of astronomical objects or to analyze how much light is being received from such objects. CCDs require computers for reduction of data, so the expense can be much greater than for, say, photography --- but CCDs can detect much fainter objects than can photographs. Unfiltered CCDs tend to be more red-sensitive than the human eye. .
  www.ikg.rt.bw.schule.de/virkla/names/schuels/simon/swglastr.htm

• A light sensitive silicon chip used for astronomical imaging. The CCD is more sensitive than a photographic plate and the results can be read directly into a computer. The chip consists of an array of light sensitive pixels which store charge directly proportional to the light they have received. The society has access to a liquid nitrogen cooled CCD for the 16" telescope. (See our Observing page.)
  www.star.le.ac.uk/astrosoc/glossary.html

• A Charged Coupled Device - converts light into electrical current. The digital camera equivalent of film.
  www.photologic.ie/glossary.htm

• Charge Coupled Device, a solid-state light sensitive device, used in digital cameras.
  www.csc.uvic.ca/~csmacoop/wtreports/nrc/dao/drew/Glossary.html

• (Charge-coupled device) An image sensor that reads the charges from the sensor's photosites one row at a time.
  support.radioshack.com/support_tutorials/audio_video/digvid-glossary.htm

• charge-coupled device
  www.wtec.org/loyola/satcom/ae_gloss.htm

• Charge-coupled device: An electronic detector used for low-light-level imaging and astronomical observations. CCDs have now replaced photographic emulsions for sensing visible light in most space science applications.
  www.nap.edu/ssb/clemglos.html