Detectors

RIT Course Number 1051-465

Lecture CCDs

Aims for this lecture

To describe the basic CCD
physical principles
operation
and performance of CCDs

Given modern examples of CCDs

CCD Introduction
A CCD is a two-dimensional array of metal-oxidesemiconductor (MOS) capacitors.
The charges are stored in the depletion region of the MOS
capacitors.
Charges are moved in the CCD circuit by manipulating the
voltages on the gates of the capacitors so as to allow the
charge to spill from one capacitor to the next (thus the name
charge-coupled device).
An amplifier provides an output voltage that can be processed.
The CCD is a serial device where charge packets are read one
at a time.

CCD Physics

Semiconductors
A conductor allows for the flow of electrons in the presence of
an electric field.
An insulator inpedes the flow of electrons.
A semiconductor becomes a conductor if the electrons are
excited to high enough energies, otherwise it is an insulator.
allows for a switch which can be on or off
allows for photo-sensitive circuits (photon absorption adds energy to
electron)

Minimum energy to elevate an electron into conduction is the

band gap energy

Periodic Table

Semiconductors occupy column IV of the Periodic Table

Outer shells have four empty valence states
An outer shell electron can leave the shell if it absorbs
enough energy

Simplified silicon band diagram

Conduction band

Eg bandgap

1.24
co
Eg (eV )

Valence band

Semiconductor Dopants

PN Junctions

In a PN junction, positively charged holes diffuse into the n-type

material. Likewise, negatively charged electrons diffuse in the the p-type
material.
This process is halted by the resulting E-field.
The affected volume is known as a depletion region.
The charge distribution in the depletion region is electrically equivalent
to a 2-plate capacitor.

Photon detection in PN junctions

A photon can interact with the semiconductor to create an electronhole pair.

The electron will be drawn to the most positively charged zone in the
PN junction, located in the depletion region in the n-type material.
Likewise, the positively charged hole will seek the most negatively
charged region.
Each photon thus removes one unit of charge from the capacitor. This
is how photons are detected in both CCDs and most IR arrays.

10

MOS Capacitor Geometry

A Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (MOS) capacitor has a
potential difference between two metal plates separated by an
insulartor.

11

Surface Channel Potential Well

12

Potential in MOS Capacitor

13

CCD Readout

14

Bucket Brigade

C:\figerdev\RIT\teaching\Detectors 465 20083\source material\CCDMovieMOD.gif

15

CCD Readout Animation

16

CCD Readout Alternate Animation

17

CCD Readout Architecture Terms

Charge motion

Image area
(exposed to light)

Parallel (vertical) registers

Pixel

Serial (horizontal) register

Output amplifier
masked area
(not exposed to light)

Charge motion

18

CCD Clocking

19

CCD Phased Clocking: Introduction

Charge packet

pixel
boundary

pixel
boundary

incoming
photons

Photons entering the CCD create electron-hole pairs. The electrons are then attracted
towards the most positive potential in the device where they create charge packets.
Each packet corresponds to one pixel

n-type silicon

Electrode Structure

p-type silicon

SiO2 Insulating layer

20

CCD Phased Clocking: Step 1

+5V

1
2
3

0V
-5V
+5V

0V
-5V
+5V

0V
-5V

Time-slice shown in diagram

21

CCD Phased Clocking: Step 2

+5V

1
2
3

0V
-5V
+5V

0V
-5V
+5V

0V
-5V

22

CCD Phased Clocking: Step 3

+5V

1
2
3

0V
-5V
+5V

0V
-5V
+5V

0V
-5V

23

CCD Phased Clocking: Step 4

+5V

1
2
3

0V
-5V
+5V

0V
-5V
+5V

0V
-5V

24

CCD Phased Clocking: Step 5

+5V

1
2
3

0V
-5V
+5V

0V
-5V
+5V

0V
-5V

25

CCD Phased Clocking: Summary

26

CCD output circuit

27

CCD Readout Layout

28

CCD Readout Device

29

CCD Readout Device Closeup

30

CCD Enhancements

31

Buried channel CCD

Surface channel CCDs shift charge along a thin layer in the
semiconductor that is just below the oxide insulator.
This layer has crystal irregularities which can trap charge,
causing loss of charge and image smear.
If there is a layer of n-doped silicon above the p-doped layer,
and a voltage bias is applied between the layers, the storage
region will be deep within the depletion region.
This is called a buried-channel CCD, and it suffers much less
from charge trapping.

32

Buried Channel Potential Well

34

Back Side Illumination

As described to now, the CCDs are illuminated through the
electrodes. Electrodes are semi-transparent, but some losses
occur, and they are non-uniform losses, so the sensitivity will
vary within one pixel. The fill factor will be less than one.
Solution is to illuminate the CCD from the back side.
This requires thinning the CCD, either by mechanical
machining or chemical etching, to about 15m.

35

Incoming photons

Photon Propogation in Thinned Device

p-type silicon
n-type silicon
Silicon dioxide insulating layer
Polysilicon electrodes
Incoming photons

625m

15m

Anti-reflective (AR) coating

p-type silicon
n-type silicon
Silicon dioxide insulating layer
Polysilicon electrodes

36

Random Walk in Field-Free Thick Device

37

Sweep Field

38

Short QE Improvement from Thinning

39

CCD Performance

40

CCD Performance Categories

Charge generation
Quantum Efficiency (QE), Dark Current
Charge collection
full well capacity, pixels size, pixel uniformity,
defects, diffusion (Modulation Transfer
Function, MTF)
Charge transfer
Charge transfer efficiency (CTE),
defects
Charge detection
Readout Noise (RON), linearity

41

Photon Absorption Length in Si

42

Well Capacity
Well capacity is defined as the maximum charge that can be
held in a pixel.
Saturation is the term that describes when a pixel has
accumulated the maximum amount of charge that it can hold.
The full well capacity in a CCD is typically a few hundred
thousand electrons per pixel for todays technologies.
A rough rule of thumb is that well capacity is about 10,000
electrons/um2.
The following gives a typical example (for a surface channel
CCD).
Q COX
nF
nC
e

V 35 2 3.44 Volts 120 2 7400

,
2
A
A
cm
cm
m
For 4 m 8m pixel, Q 240,000 electrons.
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Well Capacity and Blooming

pixel
boundary

Photons

pixel
boundary

Overflowing
charge packet

Spillage

Photons

Spillage

Blooming
44

Blooming Example

Bloomed star images

45

Read-Out Noise
Read noise is mainly due to Johnson noise in amplifier.
This noise can be reduced by reducing the bandwidth, but this
requires that readout is slower.

Read Noise (electrons RMS)

14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
2

Tim e spent m easuring each pixel (m icroseconds)

46

Defects: Dark Columns

Dark columns: caused by traps

that block the vertical transfer of
charge during image readout.
Traps can be caused by crystal
boundaries in the silicon of the
CCD or by manufacturing defects.
Although they spoil the chip
cosmetically, dark columns are not
a big problem (removed by
calibration).

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Defects: Bright Columns

Bright
Column

Cluster of
Hot Spots

Cosmic rays

Bright columns are also caused by

traps . Electrons contained in such
traps can leak out during readout
causing a vertical streak.
Hot Spots are pixels with higher
than normal dark current. Their
brightness increases linearly with
exposure times
Somewhat rarer are light-emitting
defects which are hot spots that
act as tiny LEDS and cause a halo
of light on the chip.

48

Charge Transfer Efficiency

CTE

= Charge Transfer Efficiency (typically 0.9999 to 0.999999)

= fraction of electrons transferred from one pixel to the next

CTI

= Charge Transfer Inefficiency = 1 CTE (typically 10 6 to 10 4)

= fraction of electrons deferred by one pixel or more

Cause of CTI:
charges are trapped (and later released) by defects in the silicon crystal lattice

CTE of 0.99999 used to be thought of as pretty good but .

Think of a 9K x 9K CCD

49

Charge Transfer Efficiency

When the wells are nearly empty, charge can be trapped by
impurities in the silicon. So faint images can have tails in the
vertical direction.
Modern CCDs can have a charge transfer efficiency (CTE) per
transfer of 0.9999995, so after 2000 transfers only 0.1% of the
charge is lost.

good CTE

bad CTE
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Example:

X-ray events with charge smearing in an

irradiated CCD (from GAIA-LU-TN01)

In the simplest picture (linear CTI) part of the

original image is smeared with an exponential
decay function, producing tails:

original image

direction of charge transfer

after n transfers

51

Deferred Charge vs. CTE and Size

Percentage of charge which is really transferred.
n 9s: five 9s = 99.99999%

52

Dark Current
Dark current is generated when thermal effects cause an
electron to move from the valence band to the conduction
band.
The majority of dark current is created near the interface
between the Si and the SiO2, where interface states at energy
between the valence and conduction bands act as a stepping
stone for electrons.
CCDs can be operated at temperatures of around 140K, to
reduce thermal effects.

53

Dark Current vs. Temperature

Thermally generated electrons are indistinguishable from
photo-generated electrons : Dark Current (noise)
Cool the CCD down!!!

Electrons per pixel per hour

10000

1000

100

10

1
-110

-100

-90

-80

-70

-60

Temperature Centigrade

-50

-40

54

Linearity and Saturation

Typically the full well capacity of a CCD pixel 25 m square
is 500,000 electrons. If the charge in the well exceeds about
80% of this value the response will be non-linear. If it exceeds
this value charge will spread through the barrier phase to
surrounding pixels.
This charge blooming occurs mainly vertically, as there is little
horizontal bleeding because of the permanent doped channel
stops.
Readout register pixels are larger, so there is less saturation
effect in the readout register.

55

CCD readout noise

Reset noise: there is a noise associated with recharging the
output storage capacitor, given by reset= (kTC) where C is
the output capacitance in Farads. Surface state noise, due to
fast interface states which absorb and release charges on short
timescales.
This is removed by correlated double sampling, where the
reset voltage is measured after reset and again after readout.
The first value is subtracted from the second, as this voltage
will not change.
The output Field Effect Transistor also contributes noise. This
is the ultimate limit to the readout noise, at a level of 2-3
electrons

56

Other noise sources

Fixed pattern noise. The sensitivity of pixels is not the same,
for reasons such as differences in thickness, area of electrodes,
doping. However these differences do not change, and can be
calibrated out by dividing by a flat field, which is an exposure
of a uniform light source.
Bias noise. The bias voltage applied to the substrate causes an
offset in the signal, which can vary from pixel to pixel. This
can be removed by subtracting the average of a number of bias
frames, which are readouts of zero exposure frames. Modern
CCDs rarely display any fixed pattern bias noise.

57

Interference Fringes
In thinned CCDs there are interference effects caused by
multiple reflections within the silicon layer, or within the resin
which holds the CCD to a glass plate to flatten it.
These effects are classical thin film interference (Newtons
rings).
Only visible if there is strong line radiation in the passband,
either in the object or in the sky background.
Visible in the sky at wavelengths > 700nm.
Corrected by dividing by a scaled exposure of blank sky.

58

Examples of fringing

Fringing on H1RG SiPIN device at 980nm

59

CCD Examples

60

First astronomical CCD image

1974 on an 8 telescope

61

CCD in a Dual-Inline Package

62

CCDs and mosaics

4096 x 2048 3 edge buttable CCD

Canada-France-Hawaii telescope 12k x8k mosaic

63

MegaCam
40 CCDs, 377 Mpixels, CFHT

64

HST/WFC3

65

CCD Science Applications

66

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Large CCD Mosaics

68

The LSST Camera

69

The LSST Focal Plane

Wavefront Sensors
(4 locations)
Guide Sensors
(8 locations)

3.5 degree Field of View

(634 mm diameter)

70