Teledyne e2v marks this anniversary with a series of publications and highlights how the future is bright for CCDs in space, science and other demanding applications.
CHELMSFORD, UK, January 28, 2020 — From October 2019 through to January 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the CCD, a device that has transformed the understanding of physics, life sciences, the Earth, our solar system and beyond, and enriched our lives through digital photography.
Willard Boyle and George E. Smith invented the charge-coupled device (CCD) in 1969 in the United States at AT&T Bell Labs. In 1970, Boyle and Smith submitted a paper on their invention of the CCD to the Bell System Technical Journal. Their original ideas for the CCD were to create a memory device. However, with the publication of Boyle and Smith’s research in 1970, other scientists began experimenting with the technology on a range of applications. Astronomers discovered that they could produce high-resolution images of distant objects because CCDs offered a photosensitivity one hundred times greater than film.
50 years of the CCD commemorative Logo produced by Teledyne e2v to mark the anniversary.
“The major thing is the quantum efficiency. You can get close to 80 percent quantum efficiency in a CCD,” George E. Smith would later explain.
Teledyne e2v will be marking the anniversary with the production and creation of a unique badge design, holding an event for its staff who have worked tirelessly on the development of the worlds most advanced CCD designs and a series of short publications:
Dr Miles Adcock said: “It is incredible to think how the invention of the CCD 50-years ago would lead to not only a multi-billion dollar a year imaging industry but also that it enabled the understanding of the life-sciences we have today and the discovery of distant worlds.”
Teledyne e2v’s CCD fabrication facility is critical to the success and quality of future space science missions and remains committed to being the long-term supplier of high specification and quality devices for the world’s major space agencies and scientific instruments producers.
Please follow us on LinkedIn, where we will be posting download links for some of the above materials over the coming weeks.
About Teledyne e2v
Teledyne e2v is a part of the Teledyne Imaging group. Their innovations lead developments in healthcare, life sciences, space, transportation, defense and security, and industrial markets. Teledyne e2v’s unique approach involves listening to the market and application challenges of customers and collaborating with them to provide innovative standard, semi-custom or fully-custom imaging solutions, bringing increased value to their systems.
In combination with its sister companies, Teledyne DALSA and Teledyne Imaging Sensors, three imaging powerhouses, together represent a new paradigm in the delivery of innovative imaging solutions built on unrivalled expertise and a deep technological heritage that includes capabilities across the spectrum, from infrared to x-ray imaging.
About Teledyne Imaging
Teledyne Imaging is a group of leading-edge technology companies aligned within the Teledyne brand. With unrivalled expertise across the electromagnetic spectrum and decades of experience, the group offers world-leading capabilities in sensing, signal generation and processing. The collective delivers innovative solutions to aerospace, defense, geospatial, machine and industrial vision, medical and life sciences, semiconductors and MEMs.
Contact:
Mark Bown, Head of Marketing, Space Imaging
Phone: +44 (0) 1245 453 576
[email protected]
Teledyne e2v CCD44-82 Image Sensors used on the wide-field camera OmegaCam on the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) for OmegaWhite, a variability survey aimed at binary stars with orbital periods of less than 2 hours.
