Design of CMOS active pixels based on finger-shaped PPD

To improve the full-well capacity and linear dynamic range of CMOS image sensor,a special finger-shaped pinned photodiode(PPD)is designed.In terms of process,the first N-type ion implantation of the PPD N buried layer is extended under the transfer gate,thereby increasing the PPD capacitance.Based on TCAD simulation,the width and spacing of PPD were precisely adjusted.A high full-well capacity pixel design with a pixel size of 6×6μm^2 is realized based on the 0.18μm CMOS process.The simulation results indicate that the pixel with the above structure and process has a depletion depth of 2.8μm and a charge transfer efficiency of 100%.The measurement results of the test chip show that the full-well capacity can reach 68650 e–.Compared with the conventional structure,the proposed PPD structure can effectively improve the full well capacity of the pixel.

Analysis of proton and γ-ray radiation effects on CMOS active pixel sensors

Radiation effects on complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor（CMOS） active pixel sensors（APS） induced by proton and γ-ray are presented. The samples are manufactured with the standards of 0.35 μm CMOS technology. Two samples have been irradiated un-biased by 23 MeV protons with fluences of 1.43 × 10^11 protons/cm^2 and 2.14 × 10^11 protons/cm-2,respectively, while another sample has been exposed un-biased to 65 krad（Si） ^60Co γ-ray. The influences of radiation on the dark current, fixed-pattern noise under illumination, quantum efficiency, and conversion gain of the samples are investigated. The dark current, which increases drastically, is obtained by the theory based on thermal generation and the trap induced upon the irradiation. Both γ-ray and proton irradiation increase the non-uniformity of the signal, but the nonuniformity induced by protons is even worse. The degradation mechanisms of CMOS APS image sensors are analyzed,especially for the interaction induced by proton displacement damage and total ion dose（TID） damage.

Total ionizing dose effects in pinned photodiode complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor active pixel sensor

A pinned photodiode complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor transistor（CMOS） active pixel sensor is exposed to ^60Co to evaluate the performance for space applications. The sample is irradiated with a dose rate of 50 rad（SiO2）/s and a total dose of 100 krad（SiO2）, and the photodiode is kept unbiased. The degradation of dark current, full well capacity,and quantum efficiency induced by the total ionizing dose damage effect are investigated. It is found that the dark current increases mainly from the shallow trench isolation（STI） surrounding the pinned photodiode. Further results suggests that the decreasing of full well capacity due to the increase in the density, is induced by the total ionizing dose（TID） effect, of the trap interface, which also leads to the degradation of quantum efficiency at shorter wavelengths.