RADIATION HARDENING OF CHARGE COUPLED DEVICES

ANALYTICAL METHODS TO SELECT AND DESIGN RADIATION HARD CHARGE COUPLED DEVICES (CCDS) FOR APPLICATIONS INVOLVING EXPOSURE TO SPACE RADIATIONS. CCDS ARE CRUCIAL TO THE SUCCESS OF MANY PRESENT AND PROPOSED NASA MISSIONS; THE RADIATION ENVIRONMENTS THEY ENCOUNTER ARE CAPABLE OF DISABLING THESE CRITICAL COMPONENTS. THE OBJECTIVE IS TO BRING TOGETHER IN A SINGLE DOCUMENT A DESCRIPTION OF THE METHODS REQUIRED TO MAKE QUANTITATIVE PREDICTIONS OF RADIATION RESPONSE FOR A WIDE RANGE OF SPACE RADIATION ENVIRONMENTS. THIS WILL INCLUDE NEW INFORMATION CONCERNING THE CONTRIBUTION OF FIELD-ENHANCED EMISSON TO THE RADIATION-INDUCED DARK CURRENT IN CCDS. INFORMATION ON THISMECHANISM HAS ONLY RECENTLY BECOME AVIALABLE. FIELD-ENHANCED EMISSION IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE EXPERIMENTS HAVE SHOWN THAT ENERGETIC PROTONS OF NEUTRONS CAN PRODUCE AN UNACCEPTABLE NUMBER OF VERY LARGE DARK-CURRENT SPIKES IN CCDS. USING PUBLISHED INFORMATION, NEW CALCULATIONS WILL BECARRIED OUT TO REDUCE THE UNCERTAINTIES ASSOCIATED WITH EXISTING MODELS. THE RESULTS WILL BE ASSEMBLED IN A HANDBOOK FORMAT FOR APPLICATION TO THE PREDICTION OF CCD RESPONSE IN A WIDE RANGE OF SPACE RADIATION ENVIRONMENTS. ANALYTICAL METHODS TO SELECT AND DESIGN RADIATION HARD CHARGE COUPLED DEVICES (CCDS) FOR APPLICATIONS INVOLVING EXPOSURE TO SPACE RADIATIONS. CCDS ARE CRUCIAL TO THE SUCCESS OF MANY PRESENT AND PROPOSED NASA MISSIONS; THE RADIATION ENVIRONMENTS THEY ENCOUNTER ARE CAPABLE OF DISABLING THESE CRITICAL COMPONENTS. THE OBJECTIVE IS TO BRING TOGETHER IN A SINGLE DOCUMENT A DESCRIPTION OF THE METHODS REQUIRED TO MAKE QUANTITATIVE PREDICTIONS OF RADIATION RESPONSE FOR A WIDE RANGE OF SPACE RADIATION ENVIRONMENTS. THIS WILL INCLUDE NEW INFORMATION CONCERNING THE CONTRIBUTION OF FIELD-ENHANCED EMISSON TO THE RADIATION-INDUCED DARK CURRENT IN CCDS. INFORMATION ON THISMECHANISM HAS ONLY RECENTLY BECOME AVIALABLE. FIELD-ENHANCED EMISSION IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE EXPERIMENTS HAVE SHOWN THAT ENERGETIC PROTONS OF NEUTRONS CAN PRODUCE AN UNACCEPTABLE NUMBER OF VERY LARGE DARK-CURRENT SPIKES IN CCDS. USING PUBLISHED INFORMATION, NEW CALCULATIONS WILL BECARRIED OUT TO REDUCE THE UNCERTAINTIES ASSOCIATED WITH EXISTING MODELS. THE RESULTS WILL BE ASSEMBLED IN A HANDBOOK FORMAT FOR APPLICATION TO THE PREDICTION OF CCD RESPONSE IN A WIDE RANGE OF SPACE RADIATION ENVIRONMENTS.