Research on the Electrostatic Discharge Damage of CCD Detectors

The electrostatic discharge (ESD) effect and damage mechanism of Charge Coupled Device (CCD) is investigated. Transmission line pulsing (TLP) tests have been experimented to identify the instantaneous I-V characteristics of CCD detectors under ESD stress. The TLP I-V curves of the ports with or without ESD protection show different characteristics, which indicate that the electrostatic discharge is a capacitor charging process for the ports without protection. The ports with smaller capacitance such as the transfer clock and readout clocks are the weakness against ESD events. The electrostatic damage site is further analyzed using emission microscopy (EMMI) and Focused Ion beam technology ( FIB), revealing that the electrostatic damage mechanism of CCD.