A detailed experimental and theoretical investigation of noise in both current mode and voltage mode amorphous silicon
(a-Si) active pixel sensors (APS) has been performed. Both flicker (1/f) and thermal are considered in this study. The
experimental result in this paper emphasizes the computation of the output noise variance. The theoretical analysis shows
that the voltage mode APS has an advantage over the current mode APS in terms of the flicker noise due to the operation
of the readout process. The experimental data are compared to the theoretical analysis and are in good agreement.
KEYWORDS: X-rays, Sensors, Imaging systems, Amorphous silicon, Signal to noise ratio, Prototyping, X-ray imaging, Amplifiers, Modulation transfer functions, Active sensors
Active pixel sensor (APS) circuits are an alternate to passive pixel sensor (PPS) technology which, when integrated with
a direct detection amorphous selenium (a-Se) photoconductor, can enable high performance, digital x-ray imaging
applications such as real-time fluoroscopy due to their better
signal-to-noise ratios at low dose. This paper presents
experimental imaging results from a prototype 64×64 APS pixel array fabricated in a-Si technology. The prototype APS
array is coated with a one millimeter thick layer of a-Se and the experimental results are evaluated using a standard
radiography x-ray beam quality RQA5. The APS experimental results are compared with a standard real-time detector
(FPD14) imaging array under the same x-ray beam conditions. In addition, we will theoretically examine the best
achievable performance for our APS array fabricated in
state-of-the-art a-Si technology and compare the results to
state-of-the-art PPS panels for real-time fluoroscopy.
A 2-TFT current-programmed, current-output active pixel sensor in amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) technology is introduced
for digital X-ray imaging, and in particular, for mammography tomosynthesis and fluoroscopy. Pixel structure, operation
and characteristics are presented. The proposed APS circuit was fabricated and assembled using an in-house bottom gate inverted staggered a-Si:H thin film transistor (TFT) process. Lifetime, transient performance as well as sensitivity to temperature measurements were carried out. An off-panel current amplifier with double sampling capability required for 1/f noise reduction is proposed and implemented in CMOS 0.18 micron technology. The results are promising and demonstrate that the proposed APS compensates for electrical and thermal stress causing shift in the threshold voltage of a-Si TFTs.
A single photon counting Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) based pixel architecture in amorphous silicon (a-Si)
technology is reported for large area digital medical imaging. The VCO converts X-ray generated input charge into an
output oscillating frequency signal. Experimental results for an in-house fabricated VCO circuit in a-Si technology are
presented and external readout circuits to extract the image information from the VCO's frequency output are discussed.
These readout circuits can be optimized to reduce the fixed pattern noise and fringing effects in an imaging array
containing many such VCO pixels. Noise estimations, stability simulations and measurements for the fabricated VCO
are presented. The reported architecture is particularly promising for large area photon counting applications (e.g. low
dose fluoroscopy, dental computed tomography (CT)) due to its very low input referred electronic noise, high sensitivity
and ease of fabrication in low cost a-Si technology.
Active Matrix Flat Panel Imagers (AMFPIs) based on amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin film transistor (TFT) array is the
most promising technology for large area biomedical x-ray imaging.
a-Si:H TFT exhibits a metastable shift in its
characteristics when subject to prolonged gate bias that results in a change in its threshold voltage (VΤ) and a
corresponding change in ON resistance (RON). If not properly accounted for, the VΤ shift can be a major constraint in
imaging applications as it contributes to the fixed pattern noise in the imager. In this work, we investigated the timedependent
shift in VΤ (ΔVΤ) of a-Si:H TFTs stressed with the same bipolar pulsed bias used for static (chest radiography,
mammography, and static protein crystallography) and real time imaging (low dose fluoroscopy at 15, 30 and 60
frames/second, and dynamic protein crystallography). We used the well known power law model of time dependent ΔVT
to estimate the change in RON over time. Our calculation showed that RON can be decreased ~ 0.03 % per frame and ~ 5
% over 10,000 hours at 30 frames/second. We verified the theoretical results with measurement data. The implication of
TFT metastability on the performance (NPS, and DQE) of biomedical imagers is discussed.
KEYWORDS: Computer programming, X-rays, Sensors, Amorphous silicon, Imaging systems, Capacitors, Capacitance, Active sensors, Transistors, Signal to noise ratio
A dual mode current-programmed, current-output active pixel sensor (DCAPS) in amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) technology
is introduced for digital X-ray imaging, and in particular, for hybrid fluoroscopic and radiographic imagers. Here, each
pixel includes an extra capacitor that selectively is coupled to the pixel capacitance to realize the dual mode behavior.
Pixel structure, operation and characteristics are presented. The proposed DCAPS circuit was fabricated and assembled
using an in-house bottom gate inverted staggered a-Si:H thin film transistor (TFT) process. Gain, lifetime, transient
performance as well as noise analysis were carried out. The results are promising and demonstrate that the DCAPS
enables dual mode X-ray imaging while compensating for the long term electrical and thermal stress related a-Si TFT
threshold voltage (Vt) shift.
In this paper, an innovative current-programmed, current-output active TFT image sensor suitable for real time x-ray imaging (fluoroscopy) using hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin film transistor (TFT) technology coupled with a transimpedance feedback column amplifier for pixel signal readout is presented. Simulation results show that this new TFT circuit can successfully compensate for variations in a-Si:H TFT characteristics under prolonged gate voltage stress. The readout is fast enough to fulfill the timing requirements of digital fluoroscopy. Dynamic effects such as charge injection, charge feed-through and drain-source voltage variation as well as additive noise of the pixel TFTs induce error on the output current of the pixel. To explore the dependence of this error on pixel parameters, concise analytical expressions are derived which can be used to reduce the amount of the output current error by proper pixel design.
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