The complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) active pixel sensors (APSs) can easily be susceptible to heavy-ion radiation in space applications. In this paper, the single event effects (SEEs) of pinned photodiode (PPD) active pixel sensor array exposed to heavy ion (Tantalum, Xenon, Krypton) with linear energy transfer (LET) (37, 50.34 and 81.35 MeV.cm(2)/mg) have been studied. During the heavy ion exposure, all devices were fully functional and integration time was changed, no single event latch-up (SEL) and single event functional interrupt (SEFI) happened. However, dark background with pixel clusters in a frame, which indicates the single event transient (SET) effect were observed. The number of the pixel clusters, total collected charge and cluster size were analyzed in detail. Finally, SRIM simulations were conducted on a PPD in order to predict the number of the electron-hole pairs generated by a heavy ion.