A Charge-Multiplication CMOS Image Sensor Suitable for Low-Light-Level Imaging

📋 论文概要

该论文提出了一种基于碰撞电离的电荷倍增CMOS图像传感器，适用于低光照成像，解决了传统图像传感器在弱光条件下灵敏度不足的问题。

💡 主要创新点

• 利用碰撞电离实现电荷倍增，显著提高了图像传感器的低光照灵敏度。
• 将电荷倍增原理首次成功应用于CMOS图像传感器，替代了传统的CCD实现方案。
• 实现了更小尺寸的系统设计，相比雪崩倍增系统具有优势。

🏷 关键词

📄 原文摘要

Kazuhiro Suzuki, Toshikazu Ohno, Yugo Nose, Keisuke Watanabe, Tatsushi Ohyama, Kuniyuki Tani Sanyo Electric, Gifu, Japan Charge multiplication using impact ionization [1] was proposed in the 1980s to improve the sensitivity of CCD image sensors. Image sensors that use the charge-multiplication principle [2,3] are known for their good low-light-level imaging and for being smaller compared to avalanche-multiplication systems that use image pickup tubes. In existing solid-state image sensors, since the noise floor of charge-tovoltage conversion amplifiers has a constant value, it is very difficult to avoid a degradation of the image contrast at low light levels, where there are very few photo-generated charge carriers. For this reason, it is effective to amplify photo-generated charge carriers directly in the charge domain before chargeto-voltage conversion. In charge multiplication CCD image sensors, the amplification is done by using a large number of serial CCD transfer steps at a high

👥 作者与机构

Ryu Shimizu, Mamoru Arimoto, Hayato Nakashima, Kaori Misawa,