Improving radiation tolerance in e2v CCD sensors

e2v have been developing new approaches to mitigate against the effects of radiation damage in CCD sensors. The first of these is our "rad-hard" device technology, primarily developed to reduce the flat-band voltage shift following ionising radiation. With this a very significant improvement has been demonstrated, the flat-band shift reducing from typically 100-200 mV/kRad(Si) with standard devices to only 6 mV/kRad(Si), plus an associated reduction in the increase in surface dark signal. The rad-hard process thereby allows devices to be operated in environments with up to at least 500kRad total dose and/or with reduced shielding. Developments aimed at reducing the impact of proton radiation have included the manufacture of p-channel devices. Our initial data indicates that at -50°C the increase in charge transfer inefficiency is reduced by a factor of two times for parallel transfer and five times for serial transfer.