Radiation Hardening of Digital Color CMOS Camera-on-a-Chip Building Blocks for Multi-MGy Total Ionizing Dose Environments

The Total Ionizing Dose (TID) hardness of digital color Camera-on-a-Chip (CoC) building blocks is explored in the Multi-MGy range using 60Co gamma-ray irradiations. The performances of the following CoC subcomponents are studied: radiation hardened (RH) pixel and photodiode designs, RH readout chain, Color Filter Arrays (CFA) and column RH Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADC). Several radiation hardness improvements are reported (on the readout chain and on dark current). CFAs and ADCs degradations appear to be very weak at the maximum TID of 6 MGy(SiO2), 600 Mrad. In the end, this study demonstrates the feasibility of a MGy rad-hard CMOS color digital camera-on-a-chip, illustrated by a color image captured after 6 MGy(SiO2) with no obvious degradation. An original dark current reduction mechanism in irradiated CMOS Image Sensors is also reported and discussed

Phosphorus Versus Arsenic: Role of the Photodiode Doping Element in CMOS Image Sensor Radiation-Induced Dark Current and Random Telegraph Signal

This work the role of the phosphorus doping element in the radiation-induced dark current in a CMOS image sensor (CIS) photodiode. The neutron and proton irradiations on shallow arsenic-based photodiode CISs and deep phosphorus-based photodiodes CISs have been performed. The results highlight the applicability of the same dark current increase and random telegraph signal (RTS) models. Already verified on other photodiode structures, these results further extend the universality of these analytic tools. Moreover, it emphasizes that the phosphorus element does not play a significant role either in the radiation-induced dark current increase or in the dark current RTS. The results on RTS after annealing reveal the same recovery dynamic than those already observed in irradiated image sensors, suggesting that the phosphorus element does not play a significant role after annealing. Therefore, this work is a piece of experimental evidence supporting the idea that RTS induced by displacement damage is principally due to defect clusters mainly constituted of intrinsic silicon defects such as clusters of vacancies and interstitials

Multi-MGy total ionizing dose induced MOSFET variability effects on radiation hardened CMOS image sensor performances

MOSFETs variability in irradiated CIS up to 10 MGy (SiO2) is statistically investigated on about 65000 devices. Different variability sources are identified and the role played by the transistors composing the readout chain is clarified

Radiation Hardening of Digital Color CMOS Camera-on-a-Chip Building Blocks for Grad Total Ionizing Dose Environments

Radiation Hardening of Digital Color CMOS Camera-on-a-Chip Building Blocks for Grad Total Ionizing Dose Environments

Vulnerability and Hardening Studies of Optical and Illumination Systems at MGy Dose Levels

In the framework of the fusion for energy radiation hard imaging system project, the main radiation effects affecting the image quality of a miniaturized complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor-based camera exposed to radiation doses up to 1 MGy(SiO 2 ) are investigated for ITER applications. The radiation effects related to two of the three subcomponents of the camera are investigated: the optical system (OS) and the illumination system (IS). Subsystem demonstrators have been manufactured selecting radiation tolerant or hardened materials and components to demonstrate the feasibility to withstand such high dose levels while fulfilling the ITER remote handling needs in terms of optical performances and miniaturization. Regarding the OS, the observed degradation of the radiation-hardened optical glasses used for the OS lenses is characterized in terms of both radiation-induced attenuation and radiation-induced refractive-index change. At the system level, impact of these phenomena on the OS demonstrator performances is discussed in terms of image contrast. Radiation test results highlight the high radiation tolerance of manufactured monochrome and color OS to both degradation mechanisms. Regarding the IS, the selected architecture consists in a ring of 20 commercially available light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with monochrome (amber) or white emissions. An appropriate choice for the LEDs allows designing an IS with the requested performances and slight degradation of its output power at the MGy dose levels. From the obtained results, developing miniaturized IS and OS subcomponents for MGy dose operation levels appears realistic using commercially available technologies and appropriate hardening procedures

In-situ gamma irradiation testing of radiation hardened chips till 1 MGy

Ten samples of a custom tailored Mega-Gray hardened resolver/LVDT-to-digital converter, a resistive base sensor-to-digital converter and a RS485 communication application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) were combined in 1 irradiation campaign for Fusion for Energy (Barcelona, Spain). Radiation resistance of these ASICs, developed by Magics Instruments (Geel, Belgium) for Fusion for Energy, was assessed for a total ionizing dose (TID) above 1 MGy using the Co-60 gamma underwater irradiation test facility at SCK CEN (Mol, Belgium). The 3 different ASICs were irradiated at an average dose rate of 484 Gy/h and their performance was continuously measured (in-situ) during 97 irradiation days. A fully autonomous and modular test setup was developed to perform these measurements and ensure continuous operation by implementing a recovery and warning system in case of failure to restrict measurement data loss to minimum. An in-situ post-irradiation assessment was performed afterwards to observe recovery from the irradiation in a socalled annealing phase. Annealing was done for seven days at room temperature followed by another 7 days of high temperature annealing at 100 °C to accelerate the recovery effect. During the full test campaign all data was saved in a database, post-processed with Python into readable plots to deduct possible performance shifts due to the irradiation and afterwards during recovery. During the complete testing campaign of these ASICs the ESCC22900 (Total Dose Steady-State Irradiation Test Method) standard was followed

A MGy Radiation-Hardened Sensor Instrumentation SoC in 65nm CMOS Technology

A radiation-hardened sensor instrumentation SoC is presented in this paper. The SoC is implemented in a standard 65nm CMOS technology, and achieves MGy-level TID radiation hardness through radiation-hardening-by-design.status: publishe

Growth and Decay Kinetics of Radiation-Induced Attenuation in Bulk Optical Materials

International audienc

Radiation Hardening of Digital Color CMOS Camera-on-a-Chip Building Blocks for Multi-MGy Total Ionizing Dose Environments

International audienceThe TID hardness of digital color CMOS camera-on-a-chip building blocks (radiation hardened pixel array, color filter arrays and radiation hardened column ADCs) is demonstrated in the multi-MGy range using Co-60 irradiation