A new measurement method of interface-state parameters, based on dark current characterization in CCDs

A new measurement method to characterize the extremely-low dark-current generation rate of interface states in a buried-channel n-type CCD image sensor will be presented. With this method the capture cross section and the interface-state density can be determined with one single static measurement at room temperature. Besides the average dark current generation rate, this method also uses the dark current distribution of all pixels of the CCD. The shape of this distribution gives an extra parameter with which the results can be obtained. The accuracy of this method is much higher than methods that use a dynamic measurement sequence, because the newly proposed method can be done at one temperature and does not need to be exponentially fitted.