The Low-light image sensor is the photoelectric detector for imaging in the environment of full month illumination and lower illumination. The main detector types include the electrical gain detector represented by EMCCD, the optical gain detector represented by MCP detector, and the latest scientific CMOS image sensor (sCMOS). EMCCD uses high voltage electric field to multiply electrons after photoelectric conversion, so as to improve photoelectric conversion sensitivity. MCP uses high voltage electric field to multiply electrons converted by photo-cathode materials, which improves the photon flux of dim targets, and thus improves the sensitivity of detector to dim targets in low light environment. Scientific CMOS image sensor is proposed in recent years that does not rely on external structure, and obtains high sensitivity by optimizing CMOS pixel technology, pixel structure and readout circuit noise level. Based on the optical and electrical parameters of the these kinds of low light level detectors, this paper analyzes the calculation methods of SNR of the these kinds of low light level detectors in detail, and expounds the theoretical characteristics and application fields of the these kinds of low light level detectors.
Low light detectors refer to photodetectors that perform imaging in lunar and lower illumination environments. The main types of detectors include electrical gain type detectors represented by EMCCD, photoelectric gain type detectors represented by Microchannel Panel (MCP) ICCD, and the latest scientific level CMOS image sensor (sCMOS). Enhanced low light detectors are more suitable for target detection and edge bright spot detection applications. Extremely dim targets can exceed the noise threshold with extremely high gain, so that the target will not be submerged in noise. Scientific grade CMOS image sensors are more suitable for array low light imaging applications, with better imaging quality than enhanced low light detectors. This article calculates the MTF based on the optical and electrical parameters of the low light detector. The comprehensive MTF at the Nyquist frequency of the three low light detectors are 0.48, 0.13, and 0.63, respectively.
The pixel array of BSI CMOS image sensor is a kind of photoelectric device to obtain 2D image information. The image quality was evaluated by the modulation transfer function (MTF) of BSI CMOS image sensor pixel at Nyquist frequency. With the decreasing pixel size of BSI CMOS image sensor and the increasing spatial resolution, it is more and more difficult to improve the MTF at Nyquist frequency. According to the theoretical analysis, MTF is composed of aperture MTF and diffusion MTF, the comprehensive MTF function is usually obtained by the multiplication relationship between the two MTFs in the frequency domain. Aperture MTF and diffusion MTF have different influence factors and calculation functions, but they are related to the size of the opening. The opening here represents the sensitivity aperture and photo-sense region respectively. The smaller the opening of the detector pixel, the larger MTF will be. In this paper, the theoretical mechanism of MTF function is analyzed in detail, and the calculation results of MTF of BSI CMOS image sensor pixel under 8 typical optical wavelengths in 300nm-1000nm spectral band are listed.
The readout chain circuits for time delay integration charge coupled device camera imaging system include CCD focal plane driving circuit, analog-to-digital conversion circuit, high-speed digital data transmission circuit and other parts together. The parasitic factors such as the quality of high frequency clock, high speed data transmission error rate and the aging of printed circuit board will induce more noise to image data of camera. As the longer time circuits working, the noise of readout chain becomes bigger and bigger, then the signal-to-noise becomes worse. This paper proposed a method to make circuit system check its noise as the circuit is working, which is based on pseudo CCD-signal to check the Signal-to-Noise of readout chain of TDICCD, and sends the result to control core of the system. The paper combines the theory calculation and actual measurement as the method for testing. High precision pseudo CCD signal source is used to test the onboard circuit and circuit SNR results of readout chain, harmonic frequency, noise floor and other related parameters are automatic processed.
At present, single-slope analog-to-digital convertor (ADC) is widely used in the readout circuits of CMOS image sensor
(CIS) while its main drawback is the high demand for the system clock frequency. The more pixels and higher ADC
resolution the image sensor system needs, the higher system clock frequency is required. To overcome this problem in
high dynamic range CIS system, this paper presents a 12-bit 500-KS/s cyclic ADC, in which the system clock frequency
is 5MHz. Therefore, comparing with the system frequency of 2N×fS for the single-slope ADC, where fS, N is the
sampling frequency and resolution, respectively, the higher ADC resolution doesn’t need the higher system clock
frequency. With 0.18μm CMOS process, the circuit layout is realized and occupies an area of 8μm×374μm. Post
simulation results show that Signal-to-Noise-and-Distortion-Ratio (SNDR) and Efficient Number of Bit (ENOB) reaches
63.7dB and 10.3bit, respectively.
A two stage 14bit pipeline-SAR analog-to-digital converter includes a 5.5bit zero-crossing MDAC and a 9bit
asynchronous SAR ADC for image sensor readout circuits built in 0.18um CMOS process is described with low
power dissipation as well as small chip area. In this design, we employ comparators instead of high gain and high
bandwidth amplifier, which consumes as low as 20mW of power to achieve the sampling rate of 40MSps and 14bit
resolution.
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