Development of EM-CCD-based X-ray detector for synchrotron applications

A high speed, low noise camera system for crystallography and X-ray imaging applications is developed and successfully demonstrated. By coupling an electron-multiplying (EM)-CCD to a 3:1 fibre-optic taper and a CsI(Tl) scintillator, it was possible to detect hard X-rays. This novel approach to hard X-ray imaging takes advantage of sub-electron equivalent readout noise performance at high pixel readout frequencies of EM-CCD detectors with the increase in the imaging area that is offered through the use of a fibre-optic taper. Compared with the industry state of the art, based on CCD camera systems, a high frame rate for a full-frame readout (50 ms) and a lower readout noise (<1 electron root mean square) across a range of X-ray energies (6–18 keV) were achieved

Soft X-ray radiation damage in EM-CCDs used for Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering

Advancement in synchrotron and free electron laser facilities means that X-ray beams with higher intensity than ever before are being created. The high brilliance of the X-ray beam, as well as the ability to use a range of X-ray energies, means that they can be used in a wide range of applications. One such application is Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering (RIXS). RIXS uses the intense and tuneable X-ray beams in order to investigate the electronic structure of materials. The photons are focused onto a sample material and the scattered X-ray beam is diffracted off a high resolution grating to disperse the X-ray energies onto a position sensitive detector. Whilst several factors affect the total system energy resolution, the performance of RIXS experiments can be limited by the spatial resolution of the detector used. Electron-Multiplying CCDs (EM-CCDs) at high gain in combination with centroiding of the photon charge cloud across several detector pixels can lead to sub-pixel spatial resolution of 2–3 μm. X-ray radiation can cause damage to CCDs through ionisation damage resulting in increases in dark current and/or a shift in flat band voltage. Understanding the effect of radiation damage on EM-CCDs is important in order to predict lifetime as well as the change in performance over time. Two CCD-97s were taken to PTB at BESSY II and irradiated with large doses of soft X-rays in order to probe the front and back surfaces of the device. The dark current was shown to decay over time with two different exponential components to it. This paper will discuss the use of EM-CCDs for readout of RIXS spectrometers, and limitations on spatial resolution, together with any limitations on instrument use which may arise from X-ray-induced radiation damage

Thermal annealing response following irradiation of a CMOS imager for the JUICE JANUS instrument

ESA's JUICE (JUpiter ICy moon Explorer) spacecraft is an L-class mission destined for the Jovian system in 2030. Its primary goals are to investigate the conditions for planetary formation and the emergence of life, and how does the solar system work. The JANUS camera, an instrument on JUICE, uses a 4T back illuminated CMOS image sensor, the CIS115 designed by Teledyne e2v. JANUS imager test campaigns are studying the CIS115 following exposure to gammas, protons, electrons and heavy ions, simulating the harsh radiation environment present in the Jovian system. The degradation of 4T CMOS device performance following proton fluences is being studied, as well as the effectiveness of thermal annealing to reverse radiation damage. One key parameter for the JANUS mission is the Dark current of the CIS115, which has been shown to degrade in previous radiation campaigns. A thermal anneal of the CIS115 has been used to accelerate any annealing following the irradiation as well as to study the evolution of any performance characteristics. CIS115s have been irradiated to double the expected End of Life (EOL) levels for displacement damage radiation (2×1010 protons, 10 MeV equivalent). Following this, devices have undergone a thermal anneal cycle at 100°C for 168 hours to reveal the extent to which CIS115 recovers pre-irradiation performance. Dark current activation energy analysis following proton fluence gives information on trap species present in the device and how effective anneal is at removing these trap species. Thermal anneal shows no quantifiable change in the activation energy of the dark current following irradiation

Predicting the effect of radiation damage on dark current in a space-qualified high performance CMOS image sensor

The CIS115 is a Teledyne-e2v CMOS image sensor with 1504 × 2000 pixels of 7 μm pitch. It has a high optical quantum efficiency owing to a multi-layer anti-reflective coating and its backside illuminated construction, and low dark current due to its pinned photodiode 4T pixel architecture. The sensor operates in rolling shutter mode with a frame rate of up to 7.5 fps (if using the whole array), and has a low readout noise of ~5 electrons rms. The CIS115 has been selected for use within the JANUS instrument, which is a high resolution camera due to launch on board ESA's JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) spacecraft in 2022. After an interplanetary transit time of over 7 years, JUICE will spend 3.5 years touring the Jovian system, studying three of the Galilean moons in particular: Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. During this latter part of the mission, the spacecraft and hence the CIS115 sensor will be subjected to the significant levels of trapped radiation surrounding Jupiter. Gamma and proton irradiation campaigns have therefore been undertaken in order to evaluate both ionising and non-ionising dose effects on the CIS115's dark current performance. Characterisations were carried out at expected mission operating temperatures (−35 ± 10oC) both prior to and post-irradiation. Models of the resulting degradation in dark current behaviour will be combined with expected doses during the JUICE mission in order to predict the performance of the CIS115 at the mission end-of-lif

The SMILE Soft X-ray Imager (SXI) CCD design and development

SMILE, the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer, is a joint science mission between the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The spacecraft will be uniquely equipped to study the interaction between the Earth’s magnetosphere-ionosphere system and the solar wind on a global scale. SMILE’s instruments will explore this science through imaging of the solar wind charge exchange soft X-ray emission from the dayside magnetosheath, simultaneous imaging of the UV northern aurora and in-situ monitoring of the solar wind and magnetosheath plasma and magnetic field conditions. The Soft X-ray Imager (SXI) is the instrument being designed to observe X-ray photons emitted by the solar wind charge exchange process at photon energies between 200 eV and 2000 eV. X-rays will be collected using a focal plane array of two custom-designed CCDs, each consisting of 18 µm square pixels in a 4510 by 4510 array. SMILE will be placed in a highly elliptical polar orbit, passing in and out of the Earth’s radiation belts every 48 hours. Radiation damage accumulated in the CCDs during the mission’s nominal 3-year lifetime will degrade their performance (such as through decreases in charge transfer efficiency), negatively impacting the instrument’s ability to detect low energy X-rays incident on the regions of the CCD image area furthest from the detector outputs. The design of the SMILE-SXI CCDs is presented here, including features and operating methods for mitigating the effects of radiation damage and expected end of life CCD performance. Measurements with a PLATO device that has not been designed for soft X-ray signal levels indicate a temperature-dependent transfer efficiency performance varying between 5 × 10−5 and 9 × 10−4 at expected End of Life for 5.9 keV photons, giving an initial set of measurements from which to extrapolate the performance of the SXI CCDs

Improving the spatial resolution of soft X-ray detection using an Electron-Multiplying Charge-Coupled Device

The Super Advanced X-ray Emission Spectrometer (SAXES) is an instrument at the Swiss Light Source designed for Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering with an energy resolution (E/ΔE) better than 12000 at 930 eV. Improvements to the instrument have been predicted that could allow the energy resolution to be improved by a factor of two. To achieve this, the spatial resolution of the detector (currently a Charge-Coupled Device, CCD) over which the energy spectrum is dispersed would have to be improved to better than 5 μm. X-ray photons with energies between a few hundred to a few thousand electron volts primarily interact within the field-free region of back-illuminated CCDs, where each photon forms an electron cloud that diffuses isotropically before reaching the depleted region close to the electrodes. Each photon's electron cloud is likely to be detected as an event with signal split across multiple pixels. Analysing these split events using centroiding techniques allows the photon's interaction position to be determined to a sub-pixel level. PolLux is a soft X-ray microspectroscopy endstation at the Swiss Light Source that can focus 200 eV to 1200 eV X-rays to a spot size of approximately 20 nm. Previous studies using data taken with a linear scan across the centre of a pixel in 3 μm steps predicted an improved resolution by applying centroiding techniques and using an Electron-Multiplying CCD (EM-CCD). In this study, a full 2D map of the centroiding accuracy in the pixel is presented, formed by rastering in two dimensions across the image plane in single micron steps. The improved spatial resolution from centroiding events in the EM-CCD in all areas of the pixel over the standard CCD is attributed to the improved signal to noise ratio provided by the multiplication register even at high pixel readout speeds (tens of MHz)