THE UNIVERSITY-OF-HAWAII NICMOS-3 NEAR-INFRARED CAMERA

The University of Hawaii Near-Infrared Camera is equipped with a NICMOS-3 HgCdTe detector array sensitive from approximately 1 to 2.5-mu-m and produced by the Rockwell International Science Center for the Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer Project (NICMOS). In our camera, the NICMOS-3 array operates with 53 electrons readnoise in a double-correlated sampling mode. A dark current below 1 electron per second at an operating temperature of 60 K has been achieved. The device works linearly within 1% up to 250 000 electrons at 1.0 V bias. Techniques for further reduction of readnoise and dark current are discussed. The only significant remaining problem is a residual excess dark current, remaining from previous exposure of the device.