 Early CCD charge-transfer experiment

George Elwood Smith reports fabricating MOS capacitors, thermally generating the first packet, and clocking it to an output that pushed it into the substrate for electric current detection. A later integrated eight-bit device demonstrated imaging. Dark or reversed-clock control traces are not specified; feasibility alone does not calibrate charge-transfer efficiency.^[ref]

A discriminating repeat would compare identical cycles with and without initial carrier injection, then suppress or reverse the transfer sequence while retaining output switching. An electric current transient synchronized with gate switching can include capacitor feedthrough; only the difference tied to initial electric charge and the expected transfer delay tests packet transport. These are proposed controls, not controls documented in the lecture. For an optical version, a blocked exposure estimates dark current and read noise; a spatially isolated illuminated optical detector pixel exposes any deferred charge in CCD readout trail. Photon shot noise persists even with ideal transfer.