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Dr Ben Dryer

Profile summary

  • Research Staff
  • Post Doctoral Research Fellow
  • Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics
  • School of Physical Sciences
  • ben.dryer

Research interests

My research interests center around the design, development and operation of CCD and CMOS camera systems, with a focus on their application in the space environment and the image degradation that arises due to radiation damage. I am particularly interested in testing and developing cryogenic irradiation techniques, as well as investigating potential new technologies such as P-Channel CCDs. Currently, I am leading cryogenic irradiation campaigns on detectors for the Euclid mission, testing novel P-channel CCDs, and analyzing in-orbit radiation degradation data from the Gaia mission.

Teaching interests

I am passionate about teaching and currently serve as Chair of S818 Space Science. I am also an Associate Lecturer for the SM123 Physics and Space module. I have served on several module teams, including S217: Physics from Classical to Quantum and SXPS288: Remote Experiments in Physics and Space.

Impact and engagement

I am a passionate STEM ambassador, and enjoy interacting with local school, exhibitions, and the media. Some highlights include:

  • Interviews on national television and radio
  • Co-ordinating exhibits for the UK Space Conference and Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition
  • Delivering public talks
  • Delivering enrichment sessions for local schools

Externally funded projects

A universal model for detector simulations for space applications
RoleStart dateEnd dateFunding source
Co-investigator01 Feb 202131 Jan 2025ESA (European Space Agency)

ESA, in partnership with ESO, is developing a general detector simulation framework called Pyxel, to be able to share a single well-understood framework among many projects and missions. Due to the advanced research into detector physics and simulation being done at the CEI, ESA has agreed to co-fund a PhD studentship to do more research of the physics and fundamental understanding of the detectors for a variety of applications and using this new knowledge to develop exciting new capabilities for Pyxel linking it with the CEI involvement in space missions such as Euclid, SMILE, JUICE, and Gaia.

P-Channel CCN: Development of a large format science grade P-Channel CCD
RoleStart dateEnd dateFunding source
Co-investigator31 Jul 201928 Feb 2025ESA (European Space Agency)

Design, manufacturing, packaging and testing of large format P-Channel CCDs for future space missions.

STFC Open 2018 DTP
RoleStart dateEnd dateFunding source
Co-investigator01 Oct 201830 Sep 2022STFC Science & Technology Facilities Council

STFC Open 2018 DTP

ESA p-channel contract change notification
RoleStart dateEnd dateFunding source
Co-investigator05 Sep 201601 Sep 2017ESA (European Space Agency)

The CEI have been working under contract to ESA (CLS-404-14) on an investigation in the performance characterisation and radiation testing of p-channel CCDs. This work is now nearing completion and ESA have indicated that they would like to fund an additional study under a contract change notification (CCN). This additional study will focus on the evolution of defects within a back illuminated p-channel and n-channel CCD204 after the devices have been irradiated, side-by-side, and for a period of time after, whilst cold annealing takes place.

Publications

Euclid II. The VIS instrument (2024)
Euclid Collaboration, ; Dryer, B.; Hall, D. and Holland, A. D.
Astronomy & Astrophysics ((Early Access))

Modelling the impact of radiation damage effects in in-flight and on-ground irradiated Gaia CCDs (2022-08)
Ahmed, S.; Hall, D. J.; Skottfelt, J. M.; Dryer, B.; Holland, A.; Crowley, C. and Hernandez, J.
Journal of Instrumentation, 17, Article C08010(8)

Understanding the evolution of radiation damage on the Gaia CCDs after 72 months at L2 (2022)
Ahmed, Saad; Hall, David; Crowley, Cian; Skottfelt, Jesper; Dryer, Benjamin; Seabroke, George; Hernandez, Jose and Holland, Andrew
Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, 8, Article 16003(1)

Importance of charge capture in interphase regions during readout of charge-coupled devices (2018-03-28)
Skottfelt, Jesper; Hall, David J.; Dryer, Ben; Bush, Nathan; Gow, Jason P. D. and Holland, Andrew D.
Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, 4, Article 18005(1)

AKARI/IRC source catalogues and source counts for the IRAC Dark Field, ELAIS North and the AKARI Deep Field South (2017-12-21)
Davidge, H.; Serjeant, S.; Pearson, Chris; Matsuhara, H.; Wada, T.; Dryer, B. and Barrufet, L.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 472(4) (pp. 4259-4286)

Trap pumping schemes for the Euclid CCD273 detector: characterisation of electrodes and defects (2017-12-15)
Skottfelt, J.; Hall, D.J.; Dryer, B.; Bush, N.; Campa, J.; Gow, J.P.D.; Holland, A.D.; Jordan, D. and Burt, D.
Journal of Instrumentation, 12, Article C12033

Postirradiation behavior of p-channel charge-coupled devices irradiated at 153 K (2016-06-09)
Gow, Jason P. D.; Wood, Daniel; Murray, Neil; Burt, David; Hall, David J.; Dryer, Ben and Holland, Andrew D.
Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, 2(2) (p 26001)

Comparison of Point Spread Function in p- and n-Channel CCDs (2015)
Murray, N. J.; Allanwood, E. A. H.; Dryer, B. J.; Weatherill, D. P.; Stefanov, K. D.; Holland, A. D. and Burt, D. J.
Journal of Instrumentation, 10, Article C08007(8)

Gamma radiation damage study of 0.18 µm process CMOS image sensors (2010-07-20)
Dryer, Ben; Holland, Andrew; Murray, N. J.; Jerram, Paul; Robbins, Mark and Burt, David
Proceedings - SPIE the International Society for Optical Engineering, 7742(77420E)

Tracking radiation damage of Euclid VIS detectors after 1 year in space (2024-08-23)
Skottfelt, Jesper; Wander, Matt; Cropper, Mark S.; Dryer, Benjamin; Hall, David J.; Hayes, Richard; Kelman, Bradley; Kitching, Thomas; Kohley, Ralf; Lagattuta, David J.; Lee-Payne, Zoe; Liebing, Patricia; Massey, Richard J.; McCracken, Henry J.; Nakajima, Reiko and Nightingale, James W.
In : Proc. SPIE 13092, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave (16-20 Jun 2024, Yokohama, Japan)

Evaluating UV detector enhancement technologies for the next generation of space telescopes: the path to CASTOR (2024-08-21)
Skottfelt, Jesper; Crews, Chiaki; Dryer, Benjamin; Hall, David J.; Hetherington, Oliver; Hubbard, Michael W.; Jordan, Doug and Morris, David
In : Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray (16-20 Jun 2024, Yokohama, Japan)

Modelling charge transfer inefficiency in Gaia CCDs with in-flight and on-ground data (2022)
Ahmed, Saad; Hall, David; Skottfelt, Jesper; Dryer, Benjamin; Holland, Andrew; Crowley, Cian and Hernandez, Jose
In : SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation (17-23 Jul 2022, Montreal, Canada) (p 51)

Calibrating and correcting charge transfer inefficiency in CCDs using Pyxel (2022)
Kelman, Bradley; Prod'homme, Thibaut; Skottfelt, Jesper; Lemmel, Frederic; Arko, Matej; Liebing, Patricia; Verhoeve, Peter; Dryer, Benjamin; Hall, David and Hubbard, Michael
In : SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation (17-23 Jul 2022, Montreal, Canada) (12191F)

Gaia CCDs: charge transfer inefficiency measurements between five years of flight (2020-12-13)
Ahmed, Saad; Hall, David; Crowley, Cian; Skottfelt, Jesper; Dryer, Benjamin; Seabroke, George; Hernandez, Jose and Holland, Andrew
In : X-Ray, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy IX (14-18 Dec 2020, Online)

EURO-CARES - A European Sample Curation Facility for Sample Return Missions (2019)
Russell, Sara; Smith, Caroline; Hutzler, Aurore; Meneghin, Andrea; Berthoud, Lucy; Aleon, Jerome; Bennett, Allan; Bridges, John; Brucato, John Robert; Debaille, Vinciane; Dryer, Ben; Ferriere, Ludovic; Folco, Luigi; Foucher, Frederic; Franchi, Ian; Gemelli, Maurizio; Gounelle, Matthieu; Grady, Monica; Guest, Mike; Holt, John; Leuko, Stefan; Longobardo, Andrea; Marrocchi, Yves; Palomba, Ernesto; Pottage, Thomas; Rettberg, Petra; Rotundi, Alessandra; Vrublevskis, John; Westall, Frances and Zipfel, Jutta
In : IEEE Aerospace Conference (2-9 Mar 2019, Montana) (pp. 1-9)

The silicon lattice defects in proton and gamma irradiated n-channel CCDs (2019)
Lindley-Decaire, Anton; Hall, D.; Bush, N.; Dryer, B. and Holland, A.
In : SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications (11-15 Aug 2019, San Diego, California, United States)

C3TM: CEI CCD charge transfer model for radiation damage analysis and testing (2018-07-20)
Skottfelt, Jesper; Hall, David J.; Dryer, Benjamin; Burgon, Ross and Holland, Andrew D.
In : SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2018 (10-13 Jun 2018, Austin, Texas, US)

Experimental Study of the NIEL Scaling for Silicon Devices (2018-01)
Nuns, T.; Inguimbert, C.; Soonckindt, S.; Dryer, B.; Buggey, T. and Poivey, C.
In : 18th European Conference on Radiation and Its Effects on Components and Systems (RADECS) (16-21 Sep 2018, Goteborg, Sweden)

Validation of NIEL for >1MeV electrons in silicon using the CCD47-20 (2016-08-05)
Dryer, B.; Smith, P.; Nuns, T.; Murray, N.; Stefanov, K. D.; Gow, J. P. D.; Burgon, R.; Hall, D. J. and Holland, A. D.
In : High Energy, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy VII (26 Jun - 1 Jul 2016, Edinburgh, United Kingdom)

Charge transfer efficiency in a p-channel CCD irradiated cryogenically and the impact of room temperature annealing (2016-08-01)
Gow, J.P.D.; Murray, N.J.; Wood, D.; Burt, D.; Hall, D.J.; Dryer, B. and Holland, A.D.
In : High Energy, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy VII (26 Jun - 1 Jul 2016, Edinburgh, United Kingdom) (99150L)

A global shutter CMOS image sensor for hyperspectral imaging (2015-09-22)
Stefanov, Konstantin D.; Dryer, Ben. J.; Hall, David J.; Holland, Andrew D.; Pratlong, Jérôme; Fryer, Martin and Pike, Andrew
In : UV/Optical/IR Space Telescopes and Instruments: Innovative Technologies and Concepts VII (9 Aug 2015, San Diego, CA)

Initial results from a cryogenic proton irradiation of a p-channel CCD (2015)
Gow, J. P. D.; Wood, D.; Burt, D.; Hall, D. J.; Dryer, B. J.; Holland, A. D. and Murray, N. J.
In : UV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Space Instrumentation for Astronomy XIX (9-13 Aug 2015, San Diego CA)

Assessment of the performance and radiation damage effects under cryogenic temperatures of a P-channel CCD204s (2014)
Murray, Neil J.; Holland, Andrew D.; Gow, Jason P. D.; Hall, David J.; Stefanov, Konstantin D.; Dryer, Ben J.; Barber, Simeon and Burt, David J.
In : High Energy, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy VI (22-27 Jul 2014, Montréal, Quebec)

Multi-level parallel clocking of CCDs for: improving charge transfer efficiency, clearing persistence, clocked anti-blooming, and generating low-noise backgrounds for pumping (2013-09-26)
Murray, Neil J.; Burt, David J.; Holland, Andrew D.; Stefanov, Konstantin D.; Gow, Jason P. D.; MacCormick, Calum; Dryer, Ben J. and Allanwood, Edgar A. H.
In : UV/Optical/IR Space Telescopes and Instruments: Innovative Technologies and Concepts VI (25-26 Aug 2013, San Diego)

X-ray performance of e2v’s 0.18 μm CMOS APS test arrays for solar observation (2012-07)
Dryer, B. J.; Holland, A. D.; Jerram, P. and Sakao, Taro
In : High Energy, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy V (1-6 Jul 2012, Amsterdam)

Compact CMOS camera demonstrator (C3D) for Ukube-1 (2011-09)
Harriss, R. D.; Holland, A. D.; Barber, S. J.; Karout, S.; Burgon, R.; Dryer, B. J.; Murray, N. J.; Hall, D. J.; Smith, P. H.; Greig, T.; Tutt, J. H.; Endicott, J.; Jerram, P.; Morris, D.; Robbins, M.; Prevost, V. and Holland, K.
In : UV/Optical/IR Space Telescopes and Instruments: Innovative Technologies and Concepts V (8 Sep 2011, San Diego)

Characterisation of CMOS APS Technologies for Space Applications (2013-01-02)
Dryer, Ben
PhD thesis The Open University

RVS Radiation Campaign 4 data II - Data Calibration (2014-01)
Dryer, Benjamin and Hall, David
GAIA LiveLink

RVS Radiation Campaign 4 data III - Parameter Measurement (2014-01)
Dryer, Benjamin and Hall, David
GAIA LiveLink