Measurement and investigation of proton irradiation-induced charge transfer inefficiency in PPD CIS at different integration times

Charge transfer inefficiency (CTI) is an important parameter for photodiode (PPD) CMOS image sensors (CISs). A test system was built and used to measure the CTI of PPD CIS devices at different integration times. The radiation effects of 3 MeV and 10 MeV protons on the CTI were investigated. The experiments were carried out at the EN Tandem Van de Graaff accelerator at proton fluences in the range 1010 to 1011 p/cm2. The CTI was measured within the 2 h following proton radiations. The dependence of CTI on integration time, proton energy and fluence were investigated. The CTI was observed to increase after proton irradiation: with the effect of irradiation with 3 MeV proton being more severe than that with 10 MeV protons. The CTI was also observed to decrease with increasing integration time, which is thought to be related to the charge density in the space charge region (SCR) of the CIS devices. This work has provided a simple method to measure the CTI and helped us to understand proton radiation effects on the CTI of PPD CISs.