Temporal evolution characteristics and mechanism analysis of CCD breakdown induced by nanosecond and picosecond pulse lasers

Abstract

Studies on the interaction between laser irradiation and charge-coupled devices (CCDs) have been reported to potentially bring new opportunities in the field of photoelectric countermeasures. It is known that the complete failure of CCD caused by pulsed laser originates from the destruction of CCD internal structure, but the detailed damage mechanism of laser-induced CCD breakdown is still a dilemma. Here, the thermal-mechanical coupling model of CCD irradiated by laser is established by finite element method, and the damage threshold and damage characteristics of CCD in point damage, line damage, black-and-white split screen and complete damage stages are characterized. The results show that the temperature rise effect of silicon substrate damage is predominant in the lateral direction, which increases by 300–3000 K; while it only increases by 300–400 K in the longitudinal direction. The complete damage threshold of CCD irradiated by nanosecond laser is 509 mJ/cm2; while that irradiated by picosecond laser is 190 mJ/cm2. When the silicon dioxide insulation layer is completely ablated, CCD completely fails due to the clock confusion caused by a short circuit between silicon electrodes.