High-energy proton-induced dark signal in silicon charge coupled devices

The distribution of dark signal in 10 and 60 MeV proton irradiated charge-coupled devices is discussed and a newly modified theory of proton-induced dark signal nonuniformity is compared with measurements made on devices from Marconi Applied Technologies with differing pixel sizes. The models previously developed by other workers have been modified to enable better agreement with measurement at low proton fluency. The scaling of bulk dark signal with damage energy as a function of temperature is presented. This makes possible predictions of the mean bulk dark signal and its distribution for a wide range of device types, temperatures and proton fluencies. The dark signal increase from Co⁶⁰ gamma and neutron irradiation is also discussed