Journal of Sensor Science and Technology (센서학회지)

The Korean Sensors Society (한국센서학회)
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Linear-logarithmic Active Pixel Sensor with Photogate for Wide Dynamic Range CMOS Image Sensor

  • Bae, Myunghan (School of Electronics Engineering, Kyungpook National Unversity) ;
  • Jo, Sung-Hyun (School of Electronics Engineering, Kyungpook National Unversity) ;
  • Choi, Byoung-Soo (School of Electronics Engineering, Kyungpook National Unversity) ;
  • Choi, Pyung (School of Electronics Engineering, Kyungpook National Unversity) ;
  • Shin, Jang-Kyoo (School of Electronics Engineering, Kyungpook National Unversity)
  • Received : 2014.12.29
  • Accepted : 2015.03.25
  • Published : 2015.03.31
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Abstract

This paper proposes a novel complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) active pixel sensor (APS) and presents its performance characteristics. The proposed APS exhibits a linear-logarithmic response, which is simulated using a standard $0.35-{\mu}m$ CMOS process. To maintain high sensitivity and improve the dynamic range (DR) of the proposed APS at low and high-intensity light, respectively, two additional nMOSFETs are integrated into the structure of the proposed APS, along with a photogate. The applied photogate voltage reduces the sensitivity of the proposed APS in the linear response regime. Thus, the conversion gain of the proposed APS changes from high to low owing to the addition of the capacitance of the photogate to that of the sensing node. Under high-intensity light, the integrated MOSFETs serve as voltage-light dependent active loads and are responsible for logarithmic compression. The DR of the proposed APS can be improved on the basis of the logarithmic response. Furthermore, the reference voltages enable the tuning of the sensitivity of the photodetector, as well as the DR of the APS.

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References

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