Lens-Coupled CCD Detector for X-ray Crystallography

An X-ray crystallography detector (Blue-1) has been built based upon a Fairchild 486 back-illuminated CCD and a custom lens system designed by Optics One Inc. The advantages of our Blue-1 lens system over more conventional fiber-optic tapers are: lower noise and higher efficiency; improved point spread function; negligible spatial distortion; and lack of "chicken-wire" patterns. Also, the engineering is simpler because the CCD is not bonded to the fiber-optic taper. A unique mechanical design has been employed to accurately focus the image on the CCD. The detector software is based on MATLAB and takes advantage of its powerful imaging and signal processing libraries. The CCD timing can be updated on the fly by using a "CCD controller language" to specify timing.