'Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)'
Doi
Abstract
The use of pinned photodiode (PPD) based CMOS image sensors in harsh radiation environment (such as space) is limited by their tolerance to ionizing radiation. Technology computer aided design (TCAD) simulations are performed to reproduce the radiation induced defect and therefore the dark current increase in pinned photodiode pixels up to 1 kGy (i.e. 100 krad) of total ionizing dose (TID). To do so, the TCAD models are calibrated with measurements performed on irradiated pixels. Then, the influence on the PPD radiation hardness of various manufacturing process and pixel design modifications is explored. This works shows that the proposed modification can improve the radiation hardness of pinned photodiode CMOS image sensors against ionizing
