A high-sensitivity 2x2 multi-aperture color camera based on selective averaging

Bo Zhang; Keiichiro Kagawa; Taishi Takasawa; Min-Woong Seo; Keita Yasutomi; Shoji Kawahito

doi:10.1117/12.2082780

Translator Disclaimer

13 March 2015 A high-sensitivity 2x2 multi-aperture color camera based on selective averaging

Bo Zhang, Keiichiro Kagawa, Taishi Takasawa, Min-Woong Seo, Keita Yasutomi, Shoji Kawahito

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9403, Image Sensors and Imaging Systems 2015; 94030C (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2082780
Event: SPIE/IS&T Electronic Imaging, 2015, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

To demonstrate the low-noise performance of the multi-aperture imaging system using a selective averaging method, an ultra-high-sensitivity multi-aperture color camera with 2×2 apertures is being developed. In low-light conditions, random telegraph signal (RTS) noise and dark current white defects become visible, which greatly degrades the quality of the image. To reduce these kinds of noise as well as to increase the number of incident photons, the multi-aperture imaging system composed of an array of lens and CMOS image sensor (CIS), and the selective averaging for minimizing the synthetic sensor noise at every pixel is utilized. It is verified by simulation that the effective noise at the peak of noise histogram is reduced from 1.44 e- to 0.73 e- in a 2×2-aperture system, where RTS noise and dark current white defects have been successfully removed. In this work, a prototype based on low-noise color sensors with 1280×1024 pixels fabricated in 0.18um CIS technology is considered. The pixel pitch is 7.1μm×7.1μm. The noise of the sensor is around 1e- based on the folding-integration and cyclic column ADCs, and the low voltage differential signaling (LVDS) is used to improve the noise immunity. The synthetic F-number of the prototype is 0.6.

Citation Download Citation

Bo Zhang, Keiichiro Kagawa, Taishi Takasawa, Min-Woong Seo, Keita Yasutomi, and Shoji Kawahito "A high-sensitivity 2x2 multi-aperture color camera based on selective averaging", Proc. SPIE 9403, Image Sensors and Imaging Systems 2015, 94030C (13 March 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2082780

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE