Charge Coupled Devices Introduction

The charge coupled device is a type of memory, in which packets of charge are continuously transferred from one MOS device to another. A charge-coupled device (CCD) is a device for the movement of electrical charge, usually from within the device to an area where the charge can be manipulated, for example conversion into a digital value. This is achieved by "shifting" the signals between stages within the device one at a time. Charge coupled devices are silicon based integrated circuit consisting of a density matrix of photodiode that operate by converting the light energy in the form of photons into an electronic charge. Electrons generated by the interaction of photons with silicon atom are stored in a potential wall and can subsequently be transferred across the chip through registers and output to an amplifier.

Fig 1: charge coupled device

History
The charge-coupled device was invented in 1969 at AT&T Bell Labs by Willard Boyle and George E. Smith. The lab was working on semiconductor bubble memory when Boyle and Smith conceived of the design of what they termed, in their notebook, "Charge 'Bubble' Devices". Later studies indicates that the device, because of its ability to transfer charge and the photo electric interaction with light, would also be useful for other application such as signal processing and imaging.

Basic Structure of CCD

The CCD is a metal oxide semiconductor device, which contain a P substrate on which, there is layer of metal oxide semiconductor and on the top of the metal oxide semiconductor there is a metal layer which behave like gate. When a high voltage is applied to the gate terminal. Holes are repelled from a region beneath the gate in the p substrate. This region is called a potential wall is the capable of accepting a packet of negative charge. Data in the form of charge is Transferred from one device to an adjacent one by one clocking their gates .

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Application of Charge Coupled Device

The CCD can be used as the following

1. As memory. 2. As Image sensor. Charge Coupled Device as memory

Charge coupled devises were initially conceived to operate as a memory device, specially as an electronic analog of the magnetic bubble device. In order to function as a memory, there must be a physical quantity that represents a bit of information, a means of recognizing the presence or absence of the bit and a means of creating and destroying the information. In the CCD, a bit of information is represented by a packet of charges, These charges are stored in the depletion region of a metal oxide semiconductor capacitor. Charges are moved about in the CCD circuit by placing the MOS capacitor very close to each other and manipulating the voltages on the gate of the capacitors so as to allow the charge to spill from one capacitor to the next. Thus the name charge coupled device. A charge detection amplifier detects the presence of the charge packet, providing an output voltage that can be processed. The charge packets can be created by injecting charge that is from an input diode to a next to a CCD gate or introducing optically. Like magnetic bubble device, The CCD is a serial device where charge packets are read at one at a time. When charges are injected to the CCD by applying input to the gate of the CCD, the CCD will generate a potential wall under the gate, which contain holes and Electrons. When the next input of the CCD is high, then the potential wall will increase to the next CCD and which will create a potential under the second CCD. Now again when the first input voltage is low then the charge will shift to second CCD and there will be no charge under first CCD. Again when the next gate voltage is high then the potential wall will increase to 3rd CCD and when the 2nd gate is low then the charge will shift to 3rd CCD . Thus in a CCD the data can be transferred from one CCD to another.

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Charge Coupled Device as Image Sensor

In a CCD for capturing images, there is a photoactive region (an epitaxial layer of silicon), and a transmission region made out of a shift register. An image is projected through a lens onto the capacitor array (the photoactive region), causing each capacitor to accumulate an electric charge proportional to the light intensity at that location. A one-dimensional array, used in line-scan cameras, captures a single slice of the image, while a two-dimensional array, used in video and still cameras, captures a two-dimensional picture corresponding to the scene projected onto the focal plane of the sensor. Once the array has been exposed to the image, a control circuit causes each capacitor to transfer its contents to its neighbor (operating as a shift register). The last capacitor in the array dumps its charge into a charge amplifier, which converts the charge into a voltage. By repeating this process, the controlling circuit converts the entire contents of the array in the semiconductor to a sequence of voltages. In a digital device, these voltages are then sampled, digitized, and usually stored in memory; in an analog device (such as an analog video camera), they are processed into a continuous analog signal (e.g. by feeding the output of the charge amplifier into a low-pass filter) which is then processed and fed out to other circuits for transmission, recording, or other processing.

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Charge generation
Before the MOS capacitors are exposed to light, they are biased into the depletion region; in nchannel CCDs, the silicon under the bias gate is slightly p-doped or intrinsic. The gate is then biased at a positive potential, above the threshold for strong inversion, which will eventually result in the creation of a n channel below the gate as in a MOSFET. However, it takes time to reach this thermal equilibrium: up to hours in high-end scientific cameras cooled at low temperature. Initially after biasing, the holes are pushed far into the substrate, and no mobile electrons are at or near the surface; the CCD thus operates in a non-equilibrium state called deep depletion.[14] Then, when electronhole pairs are generated in the depletion region, they are separated by the electric field, the electrons move toward the surface, and the holes move toward the substrate. Four pair-generation processes can be identified:

photo-generation, generation in the depletion region, generation at the surface, and generation in the neutral bulk.

The last three processes are known as dark-current generation, and add noise to the image; they can limit the total usable integration time. The accumulation of electrons at or near the surface can proceed either until image integration is over and charge begins to be transferred, or thermal equilibrium is reached. In this case, the well is said to be full (corresponding typically to about 105 electrons per pixel

Advantages of CCD
Low cost. It is possible to construct large memory in single cell. Data are stored serially.
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 High sensitivity.

Disadvantages of CCD
Like other dynamic memory, it must be periodically refreshed and driven by rather complex, multi-phase clock signals. Since the data are stored serially. The average access time is long compared with the semiconductor RAM memory.

Conclusion
The CCD memory is inherently serial. Practical memories are constructed in the form of shift register, each shift register being in a line of CCD. By controlling the timing of the clock signals applied to the shift registers, data can be accessed one bit at a time from a single register or several bits at a time from multiple registers. The CCD can be use as RAM.

Reference
Fundamental of Digital Circuit, A. Anand Kukar www.wikipadia.com. Scientific Charge Coupled Devices, James R. Janesick

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