New Approach for the Prediction of CCD Dark Current Distribution in a Space Radiation Environment

Commercial Off-The-Shelf Charge Coupled Devices were irradiated with protons at energies ranging from 17 MeV to 200 MeV. Evolution of the dark current distribution during irradiation is discussed. A general method is presented to predict the increase of both mean dark current and associated non-uniformity after a monoenergetic proton irradiation. The results are found to be in good agreement with the experimental outputs. The model is then used to assess the dark signal degradation of a device exposed to a multienergetic proton beam. Again, the predictions are shown to be consistent with the experimental data. This makes possible the assessment of the dark signal distribution of a device exposed to a real space environment.