Heavy Ion Irradiation Induced Single Particle Displacement Damage in 8T Global Shutter CMOS Image Sensor

The single particle displacement damage effects and mechanisms in 8T Global Shutter CMOS image sensors (CISs) are studied. We provide radiation effects due to 129Xe ion irradiations of 8T Global Shutter CIS by the analyses of dark current spikes and dark current non-uniformity (DCUN). The experimental results show that low fluence irradiation-induced dark current distributions in 8T global shutter CIS exhibit a clear exponential hot pixel tail that appears difficult to match with cumulative radiation effect physical models. The degradation mechanism is a high electric field distribution exists at the overlap region between gate and pinned-photodiode (PPD). The emission rate of a defect can be dramatically enhanced via a high electric field. Irradiation-induced defects are the sources of the dark electron generation and the electric field acts as an amplifier.