Radiation-induced charge transfer inefficiency in charge-coupled devices: Sentinel-4 CCD pre-development as a case study
07 Oct 2014-Vol. 9241, pp 229-244
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a study conducted during the Sentinel-4/UVN CCD pre-development to provide a first assessment of the radiation-induced charge transfer efficiency (CTI) effects on the Sentinel4 measurements.
Abstract: Energetic particles in space damage electronic components, and in particular affect the capability of Charge-Coupled Devices (CCD) to transfer photo-generated charge packets to the output node. If not properly accounted for either during the instrument design process or in the mission data processing pipeline, radiation-induced Charge Transfer Inefficiency (CTI) causes image distortion, decreases the signal-to-noise ratio, and ultimately leads to bias in the measurement carried out. CTI is a well-identified error budget contributor for mission operating in the photon-starving regime like space telescopes dedicated to Astronomy, but is less studied in the context of Earth Observation missions. We present a study conducted during the Sentinel-4/UVN CCD pre-development to provide a first assessment of the CTI effects on the Sentinel-4 measurements.
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TL;DR: In this paper, two PLATO Teledyne-e2v CCD280s have been proton irradiated: one whilst operating at cold and the other unbiased at room temperature, and the differences in the postirradiation hot pixel population, trap species, and charge transfer inefficiency (CTI), including after annealing, were reported.
Abstract: Two PLATO Teledyne-e2v CCD280 have been proton irradiated: one whilst operating at cold and the other unbiased at room temperature. We report on differences in the postirradiation hot pixel population, trap species, and charge transfer inefficiency (CTI), including after annealing. We demonstrate once more that proton irradiation performed at the charge-coupled device temperature of operation can show significant differences to the traditional room-temperature irradiation. The cold-irradiated detector shows a factor 2 greater radiation induced increase in dark current and a factor 3 to 4 greater increase in hot pixel numbers, however, the parallel CTI measured in the PLATO operating conditions is a factor 1.5 lower. Using the trap pumping technique, we provide distributions of radiation-induced trap release time constants at different temperatures, which can be used to identify the type of defects and estimate CTI in other operating conditions.
11 citations
Cites background from "Radiation-induced charge transfer i..."
...The shaded area for a given trap species corresponds to the spread in cited energy levels [15]....
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TL;DR: In this paper, a large format (8 cm x 8 cm) Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs) the e2v CCD270 operated at 4 MHz were evaluated before and after proton irradiation.
Abstract: PLATO { PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars { is the third medium-class mission to be selected in the European Space Agency (ESA) Science and Robotic Exploration Cosmic Vision programme. Due for launch in 2025, the payload makes use of a large format (8 cm x 8 cm) Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs) the e2v CCD270 operated at 4 MHz. The manufacture of such large device in large quantity constitutes an unprecedented effort. To de-risk the PLATO CCD procurement and aid the mission definition process, ESA's Payload Technology Validation team is characterizing the electro-optical performance of a number of PLATO devices before and after proton irradiation.
11 citations
05 Sep 2017
TL;DR: The residual impact of the RTS on the global In-Orbit Sentinel-4/UVN instrument performance and products accuracy is demonstrated.
Abstract: The future ESA Earth Observation Sentinel-4/UVN is a high resolution spectrometer intended to fly on board a Meteosat Third Generation Sounder (MTG-S) platform, placed in a geostationary orbit. The main objective of this optical mission is to continuously monitor the air quality over Europe in near-real time. The Sentinel-4/UVN instrument operates in three wavelength bands: Ultraviolet (UV: 305-400 nm), Visible (VIS: 400- 500 nm) and Near-infrared (NIR: 750-775 nm). Two dedicated CCD detector have been developed to be used in the Focal Plane Subsystems (FPS), one for the combined UV and VIS band, the other covering the NIR band. Being a high resolution spectrometer with challenging radiometric accuracy requirements, both on spectral and spatial dimensions, an effect such the Random Telegraph Signal (RTS) can represent a relevant contribution for the complete system accuracy. In this work we analyze the RTS effect on data acquired during the FPS testing campaign with qualification models for the Sentinel-4/UVN detectors. This test campaign has been performed in late 2016. The strategy for the impact assessment of RTS is to measure the effect at room temperature and then to extrapolate the results to the at instrument operational temperature. This way, very-long lasting data acquisitions could be avoided since the RTS frequency is much lower at cryogenic temperatures. A reliable technique for RTS effect detection has been developed in order to characterize the signal levels amplitude and occurrence frequencies (flipping rate). We demonstrate the residual impact of the RTS on the global In-Orbit Sentinel-4/UVN instrument performance and products accuracy.
5 citations
Cites background from "Radiation-induced charge transfer i..."
...Adding the fact that energetic particles in space may damage electronic components [6]....
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11 Jun 2021
TL;DR: In this paper, a comparison of the modelled and measured optical quality of the FLEX CCD exposed to a high energy proton flux is presented, where the optical quality was directly measured on an irradiated flight representative device.
Abstract: The exposure of Charge-Coupled Devices (CCD) to high-energy particles in space leads to a degradation of their performances. One of the observed mechanisms is the creation of defects in the CCD silicon lattice by displacement damage, inducing a reduction of the Charge Transfer Efficiency (CTE), i.e. the ability of the device to efficiently transfer the photo-induced charge to the read-out output node. Hence a reduction of the imaging quality of the detector. We present here a comparison of the modelled and measured optical quality of the FLEX CCD exposed to a high energy proton flux. The optical quality was directly measured on an irradiated flight representative device. A physical model of the detector, including an accurate modelling of the charge trapping dynamic, is used to generate synthetic scenes affected by CTE degradation from which the optical quality is assessed and compared to the measurement. Eventually the correlation of the model and the measurement will allow to accurately assess the performances of a detector exposed to space radiation environment.
1 citations
01 Sep 2015
TL;DR: In this article, a comparison between the performance degradation (dark current and charge transfer inefficiency) after proton irradiation of two types of charge-coupled devices manufactured by e2v was presented.
Abstract: In the context of the technology validation of Charge-Coupled Devices for Euclid and PLATO, two European Space Agency missions dedicated to Astronomy, we present a comparison between the performance degradation (dark current and charge transfer inefficiency) after proton irradiation of two types of device manufactured by e2v
1 citations
References
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TL;DR: A method is described for the minimization of a function of n variables, which depends on the comparison of function values at the (n 41) vertices of a general simplex, followed by the replacement of the vertex with the highest value by another point.
Abstract: A method is described for the minimization of a function of n variables, which depends on the comparison of function values at the (n 41) vertices of a general simplex, followed by the replacement of the vertex with the highest value by another point. The simplex adapts itself to the local landscape, and contracts on to the final minimum. The method is shown to be effective and computationally compact. A procedure is given for the estimation of the Hessian matrix in the neighbourhood of the minimum, needed in statistical estimation problems.
27,271 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a tomographic cosmological weak lensing analysis of the HST COSMOS Survey is presented, which is consistent with pure gravitational modes and no significant shape systematics.
Abstract: We present a tomographic cosmological weak lensing analysis of the HST COSMOS Survey. Applying our lensing-optimized data reduction, principal component interpolation for the ACS PSF, and improved modelling of charge-transfer inefficiency, we measure a lensing signal which is consistent with pure gravitational modes and no significant shape systematics. We carefully estimate the statistical uncertainty from simulated COSMOS-like fields obtained from ray-tracing through the Millennium Simulation. We test our pipeline on simulated space-based data, recalibrate non-linear power spectrum corrections using the ray-tracing, employ photometric redshifts to reduce potential contamination by intrinsic galaxy alignments, and marginalize over systematic uncertainties. We find that the lensing signal scales with redshift as expected from General Relativity for a concordance LCDM cosmology, including the full cross-correlations between different redshift bins. For a flat LCDM cosmology, we measure sigma_8(Omega_m/0.3)^0.51=0.75+-0.08 from lensing, in perfect agreement with WMAP-5, yielding joint constraints Omega_m=0.266+0.025-0.023, sigma_8=0.802+0.028-0.029 (all 68% conf.). Dropping the assumption of flatness and using HST Key Project and BBN priors only, we find a negative deceleration parameter q_0 at 94.3% conf. from the tomographic lensing analysis, providing independent evidence for the accelerated expansion of the Universe. For a flat wCDM cosmology and prior w in [-2,0], we obtain w<-0.41 (90% conf.). Our dark energy constraints are still relatively weak solely due to the limited area of COSMOS. However, they provide an important demonstration for the usefulness of tomographic weak lensing measurements from space. (abridged)
381 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1991
TL;DR: The volume of the New Series of Landolt-Bornstein dealing with group IV and III-V semiconductors as discussed by the authors is a good starting point for a discussion of the properties of these compounds.
Abstract: A Introduction.- 1 General remarks.- 2 Physical quantities tabulated in this volume.- B Physical data.- 1 Elements of the IVth group and IV-IV compounds.- 1.1 Diamond (C).- 1.2 Silicon (Si).- 1.3 Germanium (Ge).- 1.4 Grey tin (?-Sn).- 1.5 Silicon carbide (SiC).- 1.6 Silicon germanium alloys (SixGe1?x).- 2 III-V compounds.- 2.1 Boron nitride (BN).- 2.2 Boron phosphide (BP).- 2.3 Boron arsenide (BAs).- 2.4 Aluminium nitride (AlN).- 2.5 Aluminium phosphide (AlP).- 2.6 Aluminium arsenide (AlAs).- 2.7 Aluminium antimonide (AlSb).- 2.8 Gallium nitride (GaN).- 2.9 Gallium phosphide (GaP).- 2.10 Gallium arsenide (GaAs).- 2.11 Gallium antimonide (GaSb).- 2.12 Indium nitride (InN).- 2.13 Indium phosphide (InP).- 2.14 Indium arsenide (InAs).- 2.15 Indium antimonide (InSb).- 2.16 Ternary and quaternary alloys between III-V compounds.- of the volumes of the New Series of Landolt-Bornstein dealing with group IV and III-V semiconductors.
316 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the effect of charge transfer efficiency (CTE) losses in images taken with the Wide Field Channel of the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) was investigated.
Abstract: We use an empirical approach to characterize the effect of charge-transfer efficiency (CTE) losses in images taken with the Wide-Field Channel of the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The study is based on profiles of warm pixels in 168 dark exposures taken between 2009 September and October. The dark exposures allow us to explore charge traps that affect electrons when the background is extremely low. We develop a model for the readout process that reproduces the observed trails out to 70 pixels. We then invert the model to convert the observed pixel values in an image into an estimate of the original pixel values. We find that when we apply this image-restoration process to science images with a variety of stars on a variety of background levels, it restores flux, position, and shape. This means that the observed trails contain essentially all of the flux lost to inefficient CTE. The Space Telescope Science Institute is currently evaluating this algorithm with the aim of optimizing it and eventually providing enhanced data products. The empirical procedure presented here should also work for other epochs (e.g., pre-SM4), though the parameters may have to be recomputed for the time when ACS was operated at a higher temperature than the current -81°C. Finally, this empirical approach may also hold promise for other instruments, such as WFPC2, STIS, the ACS's HRC, and even WFC3/UVIS.
294 citations
"Radiation-induced charge transfer i..." refers methods in this paper
...A more accurate correction or complex scenes may call for an empirical or physically-motivated analytical forward model of charge transfer and trapping such as used in the Hubble Space Telescope data processing [27, 28]....
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TL;DR: In this paper, basic mechanisms and ground-test data for radiation effects in solid-state imagers are reviewed, with a special emphasis on proton-induced effects on silicon charge-coupled devices (CCDs).
Abstract: Basic mechanisms and ground-test data for radiation effects in solid-state imagers are reviewed, with a special emphasis on proton-induced effects on silicon charge-coupled devices (CCDs). For the proton fluxes encountered in the space environment, both transient ionization and displacement damage effects arise from single-particle interactions. In the former case, individual proton tracks will be seen; in the latter, dark-current spikes (or hot pixels) and trapping states that cause degradation in charge-transfer efficiency will be observed. Proton-induced displacement damage effects on dark current and charge transfer are considered in detail, and the practical implications for shielding, device hardening, and ground testing are discussed.
189 citations