Life testing of EMCCD gain characteristics

Two electron-multiplication, charge-coupled devices (e2v CCD97) were operated continuously for 52 days to assess their avalanche gain stability. This work was part of an evaluation study into their suitability for the radial velocity spectrometer (RVS) instrument on the European Space Agency's Gaia cornerstone mission. After one day the device gain was stable to within 10%, and at the end of the test both devices reached the required multiplication gain of 8 with an avalanche electrode voltage of less than 36 V.