Dark current reduction in very-large area CCD imagers for professional DSC applications

CCD imagers for professional digital still camera (DSC) applications require very low dark current levels to obtain excellent image quality at long exposure times. This paper presents the limits of charge pumping for dark current reduction in very-large area full-frame CCD imagers, and proposes a new implementation of "all gates pinning" for integration in multi-pinned phase operation mode. The dark current is reduced from 12 pA/cm² to 0.6 pA/cm² (3 e^-/pixel/s) at 35°C, and the associated fixed pattern noise is reduced with a factor of 6.