Analysis of dark current images of a CMOS camera during gamma irradiation

• Radiation tolerance of a fast framing CMOS camera EDICAM examined.
• We estimate the expected gamma dose and spectrum of EDICAM with MCNP.
• We irradiate EDICAM by 23.5 Gy in 70 min in a fission rector.
• Dose rate normalised average brightness of frames grows linearly with the dose.
• Dose normalised average brightness of frames follows the dose rate time evolution.

We report on the behaviour of the dark current images of the Event Detection Intelligent Camera (EDICAM) when placed into an irradiation field of gamma rays. EDICAM is an intelligent fast framing CMOS camera operating in the visible spectral range, which is designed for the video diagnostic system of the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator. Monte Carlo calculations were carried out in order to estimate the expected gamma spectrum and dose for an entire year of operation in W7-X. EDICAM was irradiated in a pure gamma field in the Training Reactor of BME with a dose of approximately 23.5 Gy in 1.16 h. During the irradiation, numerous frame series were taken with the camera with exposure times 20 μs, 50 μs, 100 μs, 1 ms, 10 ms, 100 ms. EDICAM withstood the irradiation, but suffered some dynamic range degradation. The behaviour of the dark current images during irradiation is described in detail. We found that the average brightness of dark current images depends on the total ionising dose that the camera is exposed to and the dose rate as well as on the applied exposure times.