Characterization of Bulk Damage in CMOS MAPS With Deep N-Well Collecting Electrode

Abstract

Monolithic active pixel sensors in CMOS technology, featuring a deep N-well as the collecting electrode (so called DNW MAPS), have been exposed to neutrons from a nuclear reactor, up to a total 1 MeV neutron equivalent fluence of about 3.7 x 10(13) cm(-2). The irradiation campaign was aimed at studying the effects of radiation induced displacement damage on the charge collection properties of the device, which was conceived for applications to charged particle tracking in high energy physics experiments. A number of different techniques, including electrical characterization of the front-end electronics and of DNW diodes, laser stimulation of the sensors and tests with Fe-55 and Sr-90 radioactive sources, has been employed for evaluating the device operation before and after irradiation. This paper discusses the measurement results and their relation with the bulk damage mechanisms underlying performance degradation in DNW MAPS

Quadruple well CMOS MAPS with time-invariant processor exposed to ionizing radiation and neutrons

“…This section will describe the procedure followed to irradiate the devices under test (DUTs) and discuss the characterization results. For what concerns the setups and methods used for the measurements presented in the following, in particular those based on radioactive and laser sources, reference can be made to a paper previously published by the authors [9].…”

“…6 by comparing charge collection degradation in quadruple well MAPS with high resistivity epitaxial layer and in DNW MAPS devices, featuring a resistivity in the sensitive volume about two orders of magnitude smaller, evaluated through 90 Sr/ 90 Y spectrum measurements. M1 and M2 refer to sensors incorporating different solutions for the collecting electrode layout [9]. In the figure, the most probable value, normalized with respect to the MPV as detected in non irradiated devices, is plotted as a function of the fluence.…”

Combined reactor neutron beam and 60Co γ-ray radiation effects on CMOS APS image sensors

“…[4][5][6][7][8][9] The different types of CMOS APS image sensors with different pixel architectures such as three-transistor active pixels (3T-pixels) and Pinned Photo Diodes (PPD) pixels, 4,5 and different process technology such as 0.7, 0.5, 0.35, 0.18 and 0.13-µm has been investigated by exposing to ionizing radiation. [6][7][8][9] Displacement damage caused by energetic particles such as neutrons or protons induces stable bulk traps with energy levels within the band-gap, which can lead to the performance degradation of CMOS APS image sensors. Displacement damage effects are also a key issue for solid state image sensors (Charge coupled device, CMOS APS) exposed to space radiation environments 6 or used in nuclear physics experiments.…”

“…11,12 The characterization of bulk damage in CMOS APS with deep N-well collecting electrode have been investigated. 8 Displacement damage effects on CMOS APS image sensors induced by neutron radiation from a nuclear reactor have been presented in Ref. 13.…”

Displacement damage effects on CMOS APS image sensors induced by neutron irradiation from a nuclear reactor

“…11,12 Zucca et al have discussed the characterization of bulk damage in CMOS MAPS with deep N-well collecting electrode. 16 Bogaerts et al have discussed displacement damage effects on a radiation-hardened CMOS APS. 8 Although these works have studied the displacement damage a Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.…”