Development of radiation resistant camera system

Takeuchi, Tomoaki   ; Otsuka, Noriaki ; Watanabe, Takashi*; Kamiyanagi, Tomohiro*; Komanome, Hirohisa*; Ueno, Shunji*; Tsuchiya, Kunihiko 

In response to the lesson of the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant, we started a development of a radiation resistant monitoring camera system. In this study, improvement of radiation resistance of the imaging sensor was addressed as the main target. Three different types of CMOS image sensors with field plate structure and three transistors (3TPD), photogate structure and three (3TPG) or four transistors (4TPG) were designed and fabricated. The sensors were irradiated up to 70 kGy at the Co -ray irradiation facility at Takasaki Advanced Radiation Research Institute in Japan Atomic Energy Agency. After irradiation, the dark current of the 4TPG rapidly increased and excessed that of the 3T types at least by 50 kGy. The large increase of the dark current of the 4TPG resulted in almost no sensitivity at least by 50 kGy. On the other hand, the sensitivities of the 3T types remained usable values and 3TPG had larger sensitivity than 3TPD after 50 kGy. As the results, the 3TPG sensor was revealed to be the most advantageous one in terms of dark current and sensitivity among the fabricated three sensors.