A CMOS Image Sensor with a Buried-Channel Source Follower

📋 论文概要

该论文提出了一种采用埋沟源跟随器（BSF）作为像素内放大器的CMOS图像传感器，以替代传统表面模式源跟随器（SSF），旨在降低像素噪声、改善图像质量。在0.18μm CMOS工艺中制造了原型传感器，通过实验验证了BSF相比SSF的性能优势。

💡 主要创新点

• 首次将埋沟源跟随器（BSF）应用于4T有源像素（APS）结构中，作为像素内放大器，取代传统表面模式源跟随器（SSF）。
• 通过BSF结构有效降低了1/f噪声和随机电报信号噪声，同时保持了较高的电荷-电压转换增益。

🏷 关键词

📄 原文摘要

Adri Mierop3, Albert J.P. Theuwissen1, 4 1 Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands Texas Instruments, Erlangen, Germany 3 DALSA Semiconductors, Eindhoven, Netherlands 4 Harvest Imaging, Bree, Belgium 2 This paper presents a CMOS image sensor with a pinned-photodiode 4T active-pixel design (APS) that uses a buried-channel source follower (BSF) as the in-pixel amplifier. A prototype of the image sensor has been fabricated in a 0.18μm CMOS process. Measurements show that compared to a regular imager with a standard nMOS transistor surface-mode source follower (SSF), the new pixel structure reduces dark random noise by more than 50% and improves output swing by almost 100%. Moreover, the new pixel structure is able to minimize the random telegraph signal (RTS) noise. Nowadays, the random noise level of the pinned photodiode 4T APS has dropped to less than 5e-rms, of which the major contributors are

👥 作者与机构

Xinyang Wang1, Martijn F. Snoeij1, 2, Padmakumar R. Rao1,