Automatic Selection of CDS Timing Parameters

CDS is a process used in many ac{CCD} readout systems to cancel the noise component that would otherwise dominate. CDS processing typically consists of subtracting the integrated video during a signal period from that during a reset period. The response of this processing depends therefore on the shape of the video with respect to the integration bounds. In particular, the amount of noise appearing in the final image and the linearity of the pixel value with charge are affected by the choice of the CDS timing intervals. In this paper, we use a digital CDS readout system which highly oversamples the video (as compared with the pixel rate) to reconstruct pixel values for different CDS timings using identical raw video data. We use this technique to develop insights into optimal strategy for selecting CDS timings both in the digital case (where the raw video may be available), and in the general case where it is not. In particular, we show that the linearity of the CDS operation allows subtraction of the raw video signals of pixels in bias images from those in illuminated images to directly show the effects of CDS processing on the final (subtracted) pixel values.