Displacement Damage-Induced Dark Current and Random Telegraph Signal in p-Type Deep-Trench Pinned Photogates

This study focuses on the displacement damage-induced dark current and random telegraph signal (RTS) in the STMicroelectronics p-type photogate, a device moving away from the 4T pinned-photodiode (PPD), with a sensitive volume exclusively made of boron-doped p-type epitaxy, and collecting holes instead of electrons. Results show a typical trend for the shape of dark current and RTS degradation in CMOS image sensors (CISs) with the exception that the measured generation rates seem two times smaller than typical literature values in irradiated silicon. Different hypotheses on the origin of this discrepancy are explored.