The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) will be installed in the Hubble Space Telescope during the third servicing mission in December 1999. ACS has three channels, two of which employ CCD detectors as the focal plane imaging arrays. The first, the Wide Field Camera (WFC) employs a mosaic of two 2048x4096 thinned, backside illuminated SITe CCDs. The channel is designed for high throughput (45% at 700 nm, including the HST OTA), wide field (200x"204"), optical and I-band imaging. The second, the High Resolution Camera (HRC), employs a 1024x1024 SITe CCD optimized for imaging in the near-UV. This channel has a 26"x29" field of view and 25% throughput at 600 nm. In this paper we will discuss the design philosophy, procurement and implementation of the CCD detector subsystems for the WFC and HRC channels. We will also discuss the performance characteristics of the WFC and HRC CCD detectors selected for flight.
Keywords: SM3, HST Advanced Camera, CCDs
Brief Biography, Principal Author:
Presently: Associate Astronomer, Space Telescope Science Institute; Co-I. HST Advanced Camera for Surveys. Ph.D., Astronomy, University of St. Andrews, 1986.
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