A Catalogue of Image Sensor Damage

A Catalogue of Image Sensor Damage

“a Galileo CCD was subjected to a 10-ns pulse of 1.06um laser light at an intensity of 1011 photons focused onto a single pixel. The sensor responded without ill effects taking place. However the pixel reacted negatively when the exposure level was doubled in intensity.”1

“candidate CCDs are screened to characterise optimum performance. From the inventory of screened devices 4 flight and 1 backup unit will be chosen. Screening is done under nearly identical conditions.”3

w333c1: 7 hot pixels 163 bad columns

“exposure to radiation causes the CCD register photo gates to “turn on” into one continuous channel and the devices short out. This catastrophic failure may occur in as little as 10- to 20- total ionised dose to gamma (60Co) exposure”2

w411c1: 169 hot pixels 163 bad columns


”each CCD has 4 readout amplifiers, resulting in four broad vertical bands per CCD. The horizontal dark band is a stellar spectrum. The leftmost section of the central CCD shows spurious uneven intensity levels that are the result of severe saturation of a CCD column. With increased exposure time and binning the saturation of this column becomes worse.”4

“subject: Fukushima Daiichi Radiation. I was wondering if it would be possible for you to take a good look at the following image, with a focus on the possibility of getting a reasonable radiation count from the light spots in the image.”6

“the black areas of this diffuser difference image show the effects of x-ray damage accumulated between “only a few weeks before delivery to the launchpad, a new small column blemish emerged on the last column of the array. After several hours of testing, under elevated clock voltages, the blemish was categorised as a catastrophic blemish, indicating complete device failure”5

02/11/94 00:40:43 and 08/11/94 04:21:30 Within this interval the shutter remained open for 25 minutes on 03/11 Most of this change probably happened during that event.”7

“received in a nonfunctional condition. The device was subjected to 10 laser shots of increasing energy, at an angle with respect to the surface of the array. An electrical schematic was derived to help gain an understanding of the device’s normal operation. This process also provides background information to assist in exploring how the laser shots created a particular level of damage”9

“the lines always appear from the damage site vertically down to where it is read to memory. Depending on power, exposure time, and wavelength, the lines varied in width and colour… after experiments were completed, a test was conducted exposing the sensor to the 532nm 500mW laser for 10s and sweeping the laser across the cameras field of view. This was the closest achievement to full sensor damage from all experiments”8

“how many of us remember the infamous GooeyGus CCD burned pictures.?? Let me refresh memories.”10


Sources: 1. James Janesick (2001) Scientific Charge Coupled Devices, p.838 2. Tony Chapman: http://www.photonics.com/Article.aspx?AID=52489 3. XIS CCD Screening Summary: http://space.mit.edu/ACIS/xis-screen.html 4. Gemini Observatory (2015): http://www.gemini.edu/node/10626 5. James Janesick (2001) Scientific Charge Coupled Devices, p.840 6. Dr. Neal Krawetz: http://www.hackerfactor.com/blog/index.php?/archives/427-RadiationDetection.html 7. Yohkoh Legacy data archive: http://ylstone.physics.montana.edu/ylegacy/obs_notes/html/ CCD_damage_941103.html 8. Sacha Casken: http://www.laserist.org/camera-sensor-damage-thesis.htm 9. Navy Sea Systems Command: http://www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/WarfareCenters/ NSWCCrane/Resources/SD18/ReportsPapers/ FailureAnalysis,FaultDeterminationandIsolatio.aspx 10. Laser Pointer Forums: http://laserpointerforums.com/f44/can-laser-hurt-digitalcamera-27833.html

Stephen Cornford . Destruction of an Image Sensor performed at EvenSalon, Apiary Studios, London, 30/05/2016 photo by Nihal Yesil