A CMOS image sensor for low light applications

— We describe and analyze a novel CMOS pixel for high speed, low light imaging applications. The new pixel achieves lower dark current and noise and increased gain in comparison with conventional three-transistor, one-photodiode active pixel sensors without sacrificing speed and scalability to large arrays. It accomplishes this by biasing the photodiode of each pixel near zero volts and by separating the photodiode from the floating diffusion integration node. An image sensor with a 256 × 256 array of these pixels was designed for a commercially available 0.18 µm CMOS technology. The pixel size is 5µm × 5µm with

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: ISCAS
• Authors: Honghao Ji, Pamela Abshire
• Keywords: ISCAS 2006, One-photodiode Active Pixel, Pixel, Pixel Size