Fibre-optic coupling to high-resolution CCD and CMOS image sensors

We describe a simple method of gluing fibre-optic faceplates to complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) active pixel and charge coupled device (CCD) image sensors and report on their performance. Cross-sectional cuts reveal that the bonding layer has a thickness close to the diameter of the individual fibres and is uniform over the whole sensor area. Our method requires no special tools or alignment equipment and gives reproducible and high-quality results. The method maintains a uniform bond layer thickness even if sensor dies are mounted at slight angles with their package. These fibre-coupled sensors are of particular interest to X-ray imaging applications but also provide a solution for compact optical imaging systems. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.