Effects of soft X-ray irradiation on solid-state imagers

Abstract The visible effects of soft X-ray damage in solid-state imagers are changes in the flat-band voltages, degradation in charge transfer efficiency and increased dark current. Details of these effects, and possible underlying mechanisms, are discussed. Deep level transient spectroscopy is introduced as a useful tool for identifying existing and radiation-induced trapping centres in charge-coupled devices. The effects of various annealing methods for charge-coupled and photodiode imagers are presented.