Charge transfer effects in a CCD with a single polysilicon gate structure

NASA is currently studying a mission concept called Lynx for the next generation X-ray telescope to follow up on highly successful Chandra observatory that has been in operation since 1999. Detector technology for the main instruments focal planes has not been selected at this time, with several different options under consideration (see(1)). Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs) have been traditionally the detectors of choice for space X-ray instruments, and, while new technologies, such as CMOS image sensors and hybrid detectors made huge progress in recent years, CCDs still have a combination of features that make them difficult to replace as soft X-ray detectors. To enhance these advantages, MIT Lincoln Laboratory has in recent years designed several versions of a CCD with single level polysilicon gates which can be controlled by low voltages compatible with CMOS driving circuitry, and could be an attractive option for Lynx and other X-ray space missions due to its higher speed and lower power consumption. In this work we investigate their parameters at higher speed and lower voltage amplitudes and report some of the results of testing those new detectors. We describe new techniques that we developed to study physical mechanisms that limit device performance.