A technique for suppressing dark current generated by interface states in buried channel CCD imagers

A technique for operating buried channel CCD imagers to achieve very low dark current with no loss in optical sensitivity is described. Using this technique on a 4-phase CCD shift register operated in an imaging mode, the dark current is reduced from 7.0 nA/cm
²
to 0.60 nA/cm
²
at 295°K.