Low-light-level image sensor with on-chip signal processing

Sunetra K. Mendis; Bedabrata Pain; Robert H. Nixon; Eric R. Fossum

doi:10.1117/12.161419

15 November 1993 Low-light-level image sensor with on-chip signal processing

Sunetra K. Mendis, Bedabrata Pain, Robert H. Nixon, Eric R. Fossum

Proceedings Volume 1952, Surveillance Technologies and Imaging Components; (1993) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.161419
Event: Optical Engineering and Photonics in Aerospace Sensing, 1993, Orlando, FL, United States

Abstract

The design of a low-light-level CMOS active-pixel-sensor (APS) with on-chip, semi-parallel analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion is presented. The imager consists of a 128 X 128 array of active pixels at a 50 micrometers pitch. Each column of pixels shares a 10-bit A/D converter based on first-order oversampled sigma-delta ((Sigma) -(Delta) ) modulation. The 10-bit outputs of each converter are multiplexed and read out through a single set of outputs. A semi-parallel architecture is chosen to achieve 30 frames/second operation even at low light levels. The sensor is designed for less than 10 e^- rms noise performance. A 28 X 28 active-pixel-sensor (APS) with 40 X 40 micrometers ² pixels as well as individual elements of the sigma-delta modulator have been fabricated and tested using MOSIS* 2 micrometers CMOS technology.

Citation Download Citation

Sunetra K. Mendis, Bedabrata Pain, Robert H. Nixon, and Eric R. Fossum "Low-light-level image sensor with on-chip signal processing", Proc. SPIE 1952, Surveillance Technologies and Imaging Components, (15 November 1993); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.161419

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