Transversal-readout CMOS active pixel image sensor

Shigehiro Miyatake; Kouichi Ishida; Takashi Morimoto; Yasuo Masaki; Hideki Tanabe

doi:10.1117/12.426949

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15 May 2001 Transversal-readout CMOS active pixel image sensor

Shigehiro Miyatake, Kouichi Ishida, Takashi Morimoto, Yasuo Masaki, Hideki Tanabe

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Proceedings Volume 4306, Sensors and Camera Systems for Scientific, Industrial, and Digital Photography Applications II; (2001) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.426949
Event: Photonics West 2001 - Electronic Imaging, 2001, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

This paper presents a CMOS active pixel image sensor (APS) with a transversal readout architecture that eliminates the vertically striped fixed pattern noise (FPN). There are two kinds of FPNs for CMOS APSs. One originates form the pixel- to-pixel variation in dark current and source-follower threshold voltage, and the other from the column-to-column variation in column readout structures. The former may become invisible in the future due to process improvements. However, the latter, which result sin a vertically striped FPN, is and will be conspicuous without some subtraction because of the correlation in the vertical direction. The pixel consists of a photodiode, a row- and a column-reset transistor, a source follower input transistor, and a column-select transistor instead of the row-select transistor in conventional CMOS APSs. The column-select transistor is connected to a signal line, which runs horizontally instead of vertically. Every horizontal signal line is merged into a single vertical signal line via a row- select transistor, which can be made large enough to make its on-resistence variation negligible because of its low driving frequency. Therefore, the sensor has neither a vertical nor horizontal stripe FPN.

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Shigehiro Miyatake, Kouichi Ishida, Takashi Morimoto, Yasuo Masaki, and Hideki Tanabe "Transversal-readout CMOS active pixel image sensor", Proc. SPIE 4306, Sensors and Camera Systems for Scientific, Industrial, and Digital Photography Applications II, (15 May 2001); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.426949

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