A Rad-hard CMOS Active Pixel Sensor for Electron Microscopy

TL;DR

This paper introduces a radiation-hard CMOS active pixel sensor designed for electron microscopy, demonstrating its durability and imaging performance through experimental characterization and simulation comparisons.

Contribution

The paper presents the design and full characterization of a monolithic CMOS pixel sensor capable of withstanding high radiation doses for electron microscopy applications.

Findings

Sensor withstands doses over 1 MRad

Measured point spread functions match simulations

Sensor performance verified at various electron energies

Abstract

Monolithic CMOS pixel sensors offer unprecedented opportunities for fast nano-imaging through direct electron detection in transmission electron microscopy. We present the design and a full characterisation of a CMOS pixel test structure able to withstand doses in excess of 1 MRad. Data collected with electron beams at various energies of interest in electron microscopy are compared to predictions of simulation and to 1.5 GeV electron data to disentagle the effect of multiple scattering. The point spread function measured with 300 keV electrons is (8.1 +/- 1.6) micron for 10 micron pixel and (10.9 +/- 2.3) micron for 20 micron pixels, respectively, which agrees well with the values of 8.4 micron and 10.5 micron predicted by our simulation.