by 
The Curious Bag
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Charge-coupled devices (or CCDs) are the tiny slices of silicon that modern digital cameras use to capture images. Megapixel CCDs contain millions of individual sensors.
Function
Digital cameras capture light using one or more CCDs. A CCD is made up of thousands of tiny sensors, each one called a "pixel." Cameras are usually rated by the total number of pixels on the CCD.
The Megapixel
The phrase "megapixel CCD" describes a CCD containing at least a million pixels. Megapixel is often written "MP." For example, a CCD with 5 million pixels is a "5-MP CCD."
Image Quality
The amount of detail in an image depends on the number of megapixels used to create the image. More megapixels mean more detail (or higher resolution) in the image.
Uses
Consumer cameras, medical imaging equipment and even telescopes rely on mexapixel CCDs to capture images.
History
George Smith and Williard Boyle invented the CCD in 1969 while working for Bell Labs. Smith and Boyle won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2009 for their invention.
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