Natural radiation events in CCD imagers at ground level

In charged coupled devices (CCDs), radiation-induced events generate electron hole pairs in silicon that cause artifacts and contribute to degrade image quality. In this work, the impact of natural radiation at ground level has been characterized at sea level, in altitude and underground for a comme...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Microelectronics and reliability 2016-09, Vol.64, p.68-72
Main Authors: Saad Saoud, T., Moindjie, S., Munteanu, D., Autran, J.L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alpha-particle emitters
Altitude test
Atmospheric neutrons
Charge-coupled devices (CCD)
Engineering Sciences
Micro and nanotechnologies
Microelectronics
Monte Carlo simulation
Muons
Protons
Terrestrial cosmic rays
Underground test
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Summary:In charged coupled devices (CCDs), radiation-induced events generate electron hole pairs in silicon that cause artifacts and contribute to degrade image quality. In this work, the impact of natural radiation at ground level has been characterized at sea level, in altitude and underground for a commercial full-frame CCD device. Results have been carefully analyzed in terms of event shape, size and hourly rates. The respective contributions of atmospheric radiation and telluric contamination from ultra-traces of alpha-particle emitters have been successfully separated and quantified. Experimental results have been compared with simulation results obtained from a dedicated radiation transport and interaction code. •Image artifacts induced by natural radiation in CCD images are investigated.•Radiation-induced events are analyzed in terms of pixel size and hourly rates.•Numerical simulations give the contributions of the different particles to the event rates.
ISSN:0026-2714
1872-941X
DOI:10.1016/j.microrel.2016.07.138