Alexandre Le Roch received the 2020 thesis prize from the ISAE-SUPAERO Foundation

Alexandre Le Roch received the thesis prize from the ISAE-SUPAERO Foundation for the excellence of his research and their applications in imaging systems operating in radiative environments. He takes on the challenge of summarizing his thesis on the study of the effects of space and nuclear radiation on CMOS image sensors in 3 min top time!

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Graduated from the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Rennes (INSA Rennes) in 2015, Alexandre started his thesis at the Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace (ISAE-SUPAERO) in 2017 after a period spent at STMicroelectronics in Singapore. This thesis was conducted with the support of the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA).

The thesis work focuses on the study of the effects of space and nuclear radiation on CMOS image sensors in order to improve space instruments and plasma diagnosis for nuclear fusion. More specifically, the study focuses on the radiation-induced crystal defects responsible for the increase of the dark current. A particular interest is given to the metastable defects probably at the origin of the discrete and random fluctuations of the dark current called telegrapher signal. This work contributes to the improvement of the knowledge of the physical principles involved in silicon in the face of radiation. The particle-matter interactions, associated with the specific matrix architecture of the image sensors, provide reliable tools for the statistical analysis of the creation of defects. Moreover, this work highlights some behaviors of the dark current sources, thus opening up new avenues for optimizing CMOS image sensors for future space and nuclear applications.

Alexandre is author or co-author of 11 publications. He presented his work at the international conferences RADECS 2017, NSREC 2018, IISW 2019 and NSREC 2019. During his thesis, Alexandre was the recipient of various awards.

• Outstanding Student Paper - NSREC conference | IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Science Society (NPSS) 2017

• Paul Phelps Continuing Education Grant Award | IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Science Society (NPSS) 2019

• Meritorious Paper Award - NSREC conference | IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Science Society (NPSS)2019

• Best Poster Award | International Image Sensor Workshop (IISW) 2019

• Best Student Paper (Jean-Marie Palau Award) - RADECS conference | IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Science Society (NPSS) 2019

• Best Paper - RADECS conference | IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Science Society (NPSS) 2019

Alexandre also participated in the opening of the IEEE Student Branch at ISAE-SUPAERO in 2017 and chaired it until 2020.

Alexandre now works as a research engineer at ISAE-SUPAERO in collaboration with CNES. His research activities are focused on the radiation resistance of CMOS image sensors for future exploration missions in the Jovian system, a very severe radiative environment.