The first DSSC 1-megapixel camera became available at the European XFEL in the Hamburg area in February 2019. It was successfully tested, installed and commissioned at the Spectroscopy and Coherent Scattering Instrument. DSSC is a high-speed, large-area, 2-D imaging detector system optimized for photon science applications in the energy range between 0.25 keV and 6 keV. The camera is based on direct conversion Si-sensors and is composed of 1024×1024 pixels of hexagonal shape with a side length of 136 µm. 256 ASICs provide full parallel readout, comprising analog filtering, digitization and in-pixel data storage. In order to cope with the demanding X-ray pulse time structure of the European XFEL, the DSSC provides a peak frame rate of 4.5 MHz. The first megapixel camera is equipped with Miniaturized Silicon Drift Detector pixel arrays. The intrinsic response of the pixels and the linear readout limit the dynamic range but allow one to achieve noise values of about 60 electrons r.m.s. at the highest frame rate. The challenge of providing high-dynamic range (~10 4 photons/pixel/pulse) and single photon detection simultaneously requires a non-linear system front-end, which will be obtained with the DEPFET active pixel technology foreseen for the advanced version of the camera. This technology will provide lower noise and a nonlinear response at the sensor level. The paper describes the The manuscript was submitted on 28.02.2021. The development described in this work was initiated, funded and coordinated by the European XFEL GmbH in the framework of the DSSC project.

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Fluorescence laser-scanning microscopy (LSM) is experiencing a revolution thanks to new single-photon (SP) array detectors, which give access to an entirely new set of single-photon information. Together with the blooming of new SP LSM techniques and the development of tailored SP array detectors, there is a growing need for (i) DAQ systems capable of handling the high-throughput and high-resolution photon information generated by these detectors, and (ii) incorporating these DAQ protocols in existing fluorescence LSMs. We developed an open-source, low-cost, multi-channel time-tagging module (TTM) based on a field-programmable gate array that can tag in parallel multiple single-photon events, with 30 ps precision, and multiple synchronisation events, with 4 ns precision. We use the TTM to demonstrate live-cell super-resolved fluorescence lifetime image scanning microscopy and fluorescence lifetime fluctuation spectroscopy. We expect that our BrightEyes-TTM will support the microscopy community in spreading SP-LSM in many life science laboratories.

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