Question

How does dust impact the performance of a CCD sensor?

Answer 1

Huh? Dust does not affect charge coupled device operation.. . Please clarify your question

Answer 2

Dust is a huge problem for CCDs.. . There are two main reasons for this.. . The first is that you use the same CCD for every image, unlike film where a new bit of film is slid into place for any picture. So any dust on a CCD affects every single picture, not just one.. . The second is that a CCD is much, much smaller than a frame of film, so dust particles are relatively much larger and much more visible.. . Dust, of course, leaves dark dropout spots in the image. All good cameras take measures both to reduce the chance of dust getting on the CCD (this is especially a problem in reflex cameras with interchangeable lenses, where the CCD is potentially exposed every time the lens is removed) and to computationally filter out the effects of dust before saving the image.

Answer 3

If the CCD is an image sensor, dust on the surface will reduce the intensity of the image. If it is a camera sensor, dust will produce spots in the image.

Answer 4

Ideally, the CCD would detect only the light of objects within the field of view of the chip. Therefore, the resulting raw image would be a duplicate of the view and no further processing would be needed. In reality, as with any scientific instrument, there are certain errors called 'noise' inherent to a CCD camera and its operation. Factors not associated with the electronics, such as dust on the optical surfaces, also produce undesirable effects termed 'artifacts.' There are several sources of noise and artifacts, but only those that can be dealt with using the available software will be discussed.