Radiation hardness and application of CCDs as particle detectors

The Nobel Prize-winning invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit (the CCD sensor) has important applications for particle physics detectors. The Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs) have been successfully used in several high energy physics experiments over the past two decades. Their high spatial resolution and thin sensitive layers make them an excellent tool for studying short-lived particles. Prototypes with 50 MHz readout in column-parallel technique have been developed in recent years and extensively tested. For the application of CCDs as vertex detectors in high-radiation environments of future particle colliders, the study of their radiation hardness is crucial for these applications.