CHARGE COUPLED DEVICE

(CCD)

Group A
 CCDs - Introduction
• A charge-coupled device (CCD) is a device for the
movement of electrical charge from one capacitor to
another one.

• It is developed by W. Boyle and G. Smith in Bell

Laboratories from Bucket-Brigade Device (BBD) which
is a device basically transfers charge packets from
one transistor to another.

• The CCD can perform a wide range of the electronic

functions, including image sensing and signal
processing.
 Device Structure

The basic device consists of a closely spaced array

(Two-dimensional ) of MOS capacitors on a
continuous insulator layer (oxide) that covers the
semiconductor substrate.

These MOS allow the charge of

electrons to build up in wells in the
silicon base.
•There are three gate electrodes on the top of
Silicon dioxide.
Potential well (p-channel) in a surface of
CCD
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 Working Principle
In order to produce an image, It can be divided to
four stages.

1) generate photoelectrons.
2) collect electrons.
3) transfer the collected charges.
4) Detect the charges.

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1. Generate charge

•Light in the form of incoming photons falls onto

the surface of the CCD chip.
•This generates free
electrons in the silicon of
the number of photons
striking it.CCD in proportion
to the

•This is happened due to

the photoelectric effect.

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2. Collect Charge

These electrons collect in little packets created

by the geometry of the silicon and
surrounding electrical circuitry laid out in a two
dimensional grid on the chip.

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3.Transfer Charge

When apply a differential voltage across gates

signal electrons move down vertically registers
(columns) to horizontal register.

Each line is serially read by an on-chip amplifier.

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4. Detect charge

Individual charge packets are converted to an

output voltage and digitally encoded.

Image area
(exposed to light)

Charge motion
Parallel (vertical) registers

Pixel

Serial (horizontal) register

Output amplifier
Charge motion
masked area
(not exposed to light)
 Application of CCD
• Photo copiers
• Barcode readers
• Astronomical Telescopes
• CCTV cameras
• Video cameras
• Photographic cameras
• Memory Devices
• And other imaging devices

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CCD cameras mounted on Astronomical
Telescopes

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Digital Cameras used in Photography

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Memory Devices

• Flash Memory card

• Memory stick

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Spectroscopy

Endoscopes

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 Materials Used
• Silicon is used as the base material.
• Silicon dioxide is used as the coating.
• Top layer is also made of silicon.
• It is lightly p doped (usually with boron).
• Certain areas of the surface of the silicon
are implanted with phosphorus, giving them
an n-doped designation.

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Properties of materials and how they
are related to device performance
• Its base, which is constructed of a material which is
a good conductor under certain conditions.

• When photon absorption adds energy to electron

and excited to high enough energies, a
semiconductor becomes a conductor.

• It is a silicon material that is doped with, or made to

contain, a small amount of some other material.

• Doping endows materials with special properties

that can be exploited through different electrical
means.
why doped silicon would have special
properties and how those properties can be
exploited?

consider how silicon normally forms chemical

bonds.
• A silicon atom can form up to four bonds with
adjacent atoms.
• This is because silicon has four valence
electrons that it can share to form bonds.
• In a crystal of pure silicon, all atoms would be
perfectly bonded to four neighboring atoms.
• In this case, there are no extra electrons, but
also no places where electrons are missing.

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Upon application of the right stimulus, the
movement of the hole can be directed.

This is one of the fundamental keys to the operation

of the CCD.
• If a p-type and an n-type material are brought
into contact, a p-n junction is formed and a very
interesting result occurs.

• Extra electrons from the n-type material will

diffuse to the p-type material and fill in some of
the extra holes from the p-type material.

• This region surrounding the boundary in which

electrons and holes have recombined is called
the depletion region.
• Most of the electrons occupy the Valence band
but can be excited into the conduction band by
heating or by the absorption of a photon.
Increasing energy

Conduction Band

1.26eV

Valence Band

Hole Electron

• It leaves behind a ‘hole’ in the valence band

which acts like a positively charged carrier.

• The electron is free to move about in the lattice

of the silicon crystal.
•The electron will be drawn to the most positively
charged zone in the PN junction, located in the
depletion region in the n-type material.

•Likewise, the positively charged hole will seek the

most negatively charged region.

•In the absence of an external electric field the hole

and electron will quickly re-combine and be lost.

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• In a CCD an electric field is introduced to sweep.

• These charge carriers apart and prevent

recombination.

• Each photon thus removes one unit of charge

from the capacitor.

• This is how photons are detected CCDs.

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 Fabrication
• The photoactive region of a CCD is, generally,
an epitaxial layer of silicon.

• It is lightly p doped (usually with boron) and is

grown upon a substrate material.

• The gate oxide, the capacitor dielectric, is grown

on top of the epitaxial layer and substrate.

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• Later in the process, polysilicon gates are
deposited by chemical vapor deposition,
patterned with photolithography, and etched in
such a way that the separately phased gates lie
perpendicular to the channels.

• The channels are further defined by utilization of

the LOCOS process to produce the channel
stop region.

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THANK YOU

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