Impact of the Border Crossing Effects on the DCNU for Pixel Arrays Irradiated With High Energy Protons

A 3D Monte Carlo model based on GEANT4, dedicated to the simulation of the Dark Current Non Uniformity (DCNU) in image sensors, is used to study the impact of the geometrical dimensions of pixels, on the shape of the DCNU. The study focuses on the inelastic nuclear interaction which is the dominant process for high degradation levels (tail of the DCNU). Simulations made on different pixel geometries demonstrate that border crossing effect impacts the shape of the DCNU only for very small pixel dimensions (depleted volume <; 8 μm
³
).