Experimental Research On The Space Radiation Effects Of CMOS Image Sensor

The mostly used image sensors now are Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) and the Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS). CCDs dominate the market for decades until the early-mid 1990s when NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) improved the performance of CMOS image sensor for space application. For its advantages such as ultra-low-power, highly integrated, ultra-compact, and cost-effective, etc., CMOS image sensors began to develop very quickly. CMOS image sensors now have better performance that equals or exceeds that of Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs). Together with the inherent advantages of in-pixel amplification column parallel architecture and deep-submicron CMOS technology, CMOS image sensors become very popular no matter in commercial field or space environment.The space environment is hostile to most integrated electronic components applied in space. Radiation such as gamma-rays, x-rays, energetic electrons, protons, neutrons and ions of various kinds that are prevalent in space may cause various transient or fatal device damages. In addition, the application of micro- and nano-satellites increases the potential of damage to the electronic components. The development of CMOS image sensor and recent application in space field are presented. The current architecture of CMOS sensor and the radiation theory are described from which we can get the conclusion of increasing dark current, decreasing responsivity and non-uniformity of dark output.A CMOS active pixel sensor has been evaluated with Co-60γirradiation at Harbin Physics Institute. With the total dose of 4×10~4rad, no difference is observed in dark current and non-uniformity of dark output. When the total dose of 5×10~4rad arrives, the dark current increases, and the non-uniformity of dark output is no longer zero. The responsivity is found no significant difference during the irradiation. After irradiation, the performance of device degradated rapidly and for a month to anneal to a relative stabilization.In addition, the plentiful data from the experiment could be a basis for future research.