Circuit for an active pixel sensor

Details Circuit for an active pixel sensor Circuit for an active pixel sensor

2003-07-29

2008-05-06

Tran, Nhan T. (Department: 2622)

Television

Camera, system and detail

Solid-state image sensor

C348S294000, C257S291000, C250S208100, C358S482000

Reexamination Certificate

active

07369168

ABSTRACT:
A pixel circuit includes a silicon substrate having a photodiode that converts light intensity into a voltage signal and two metal layers disposed on the substrate having a pixel control circuit. The first metal layer includes a row trace and a reset trace and the second metal layer includes a column trace and a voltage supply trace. The row trace carries a signal that activates a switch for coupling the photodiode to the column trace during a readout phase and clears the voltage at the photodiode during a reset phase. The column trace interfaces with a signal capture circuit in a CMOS array of pixels for capturing a digital image that corresponds to each voltage level at each photodiode.

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Article “Analysis of Temporal Noise in CMOS Photodiode Active Pixel Sensor”; authors Hui Tian, Boyd Fowler, and Abbas El Garnal; IEEE Journal, vol 36, No. 1, No. 1, pp. 92-101; date Jan. 2001.
Article “Analysis and enhancement of low-light-level performance of photodiode-type CMOS active pixel imagers operated with sub-threshold reset”; authors Bedabrata Pain, Guang Yang, Monico Ortiz, Christopher Wrigley, Bruce Hancock, and Thomas Cunningham; IEEE Workshop on CCDS and Advanced Image Sersors; date 1999.

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