A MODEL FOR CHARGE-TRANSFER IN BURIED-CHANNEL CHARGE-COUPLED-DEVICES AT LOW-TEMPERATURE

Charge transfer in buried-channel charge-coupled devices (CCD's) is explored with a one-dimensional numerical model which describes the capture and emission of electrons from a shallow donor level in silicon through the use of the Shockley-Read-Hall generation-recombination theory. Incorporated in the model are the three-dimensional Poole-Frenkel barrier lowering theory of Jonscher and Hartke and the low-temperature form of Poisson's equation. Reasonable agreement of the model is found with experimental data taken from the buried-channel CCD's of a PtSi Schottky barrier infrared image sensor. Moreover, the value for the capture cross section of electrons to the shallow phosphorus level in silicon inferred from the model follows the cascade theory for capture by Lax, and agrees roughly with determinations made by other experimenters.