CCD imaging sensor well depth capacity

Last Revision Date: 3/1/2016

Full well capacity, also known as saturation capacity, defines the amount of charge an individual pixel can hold before saturating and is often described in terms of electrons. Saturation must be avoided in high-performance CCD imaging because it diminishes the quantitative ability of the CCD and produces image smearing due to a phenomenon known as blooming. Well depth is dependent upon a variety of factors, including the pixel size of the CCD and the operating voltages used on the CCD.

EMVA 1288 Overview: Imaging Performance provides more information on well depth and other camera properties, including:

• • quantum efficiency
  • temporal dark noise or read noise
  • saturation capacity or full well depth
  • signal to noise ratio
  • dynamic range
  • absolute sensitivity threshold
  • gain

Contact technical support for additional information regarding properties of our cameras.