Saturation and blooming are phenomena which occur in all CCDs and which affect both their quantitative and qualitative imaging characteristics. If each individual pixel can be thought of as a well of electrons, then saturation refers to the condition where the well is full. The amount of charge which can be accumulated in a single pixel is largely determined by its area. However, due to the nature of the potential which holds charge within a pixel, there is less probability of trapping an electron within a well that is approaching saturation. Therefore, as a well approaches its limit, the linear relationship between light intensity and signal degrades. As a result, the apparent responsivity of a "saturated" pixel drops. At saturation, pixels lose their ability to accommodate additional charge. This additional charge will then spread into neighboring pixels, causing them to either report erroneous values or also saturate. This spread of charge to adjacent pixels is known as blooming and appears as a white streak or blob in the image. As various CCDs contain different architectures, saturation and blooming can be defined and controlled in many ways :
Mean Deviance Full Well (MDFW)
As the well starts to over fill, the photometric response of the
pixel departs from linearity. The point at which this deviation
exceeds an acceptable level is defined as MDFW. Cameras are usually
constructed so that this signal level fills the full (12 or 16
bit) dynamic range of the analog to digital converter.
Noise Clipping
One can see signs of saturation even before the MDFW condition
is reached. As the wells fills, the random noise ( signal) starts
to be clipped at the top end. As a result, a condition termed
noise clipping can be observed where the signal noise starts to
decrease even though the signal is still increasing.
Output Stage Saturation
When many pixels on the CCD are saturated, or when extensive parallel
and serial binning is being performed, the output stage may saturate.
Under extreme conditions (for instance, daylight illumination
of a scientific camera), the charge overload in the output node
can cause the output amplification chain to collapse, resulting
in a zero (completely dark) image. It should be noted that in
all CCD devices, wells can hold more than they can transfer. When
they begin to over fill, the saturation we observe is actually
caused by approaching this maximum charge transfer condition.
Anti-blooming Control
Blooming can be controlled in a number of ways. For instance,
a multi-phase CCD can be partially clocked during integration
to eliminate image blooming. During integration, two of the three
clock voltage phases used to transfer charge between neighboring
pixels are alternately switched. When a pixel approaches saturation,
extra charge is forced into the barrier between the Si and SiO2
layers, where it is confined. As the phases are switched, this
confined charge is released and lost, while the signal charge
within the well is preserved. As long as the switching period
is fast enough to keep up with overflow signal generation, charge
will not spread into neighboring pixels. Known as clocked anti-blooming,
this technique is most appropriate for low light applications
and is just now being considered for use in standard camera configurations.
Anti-blooming Cameras
Anti-blooming is more traditionally controlled by specific CCD architecture
design. Cameras, such as Photometrics' PXL 1300 and ImagePoint, utilize CCDs
that have charge drains running in a strip between every other column. Excessive
charge that would normally cause blooming is siphoned off into this drain. Although
such an architecture causes a reduction in the effective quantum efficiency
and modulation transfer function (MTF), these devices are invaluable when light
intensities span many orders of magnitude within a single image.