Comparison of EM-CCD and scientific CMOS based camera systems for high resolution X-ray imaging and tomography applications

We have developed an Electron Multiplying (EM) CCD based, high frame rate camera system using an optical lens system for X-ray imaging and tomography. The current state of the art systems generally use scientific CMOS sensors that have a readout noise of a few electrons and operate at high frame rates. Through the use of electron multiplication, the EM-CCD camera is able to operate with a sub-electron equivalent readout noise and a frame rate of up to 50 HZ (full-frame). The EM-CCD-based camera system has a major advantage over existing technology in that it has a high signal-to-noise ratio even at very low signal levels. This allows radiation-sensitive samples to be analysed with low flux X-ray beams which greatly reduces the beam damage. This paper shows that under the conditions of this experiment the EM-CCD camera system has a comparable spatial resolution performance to the scientific CMOS based imaging system and has a superior signal-to-noise ratio.