A low noise readout detector circuit for nanoampere sensor applications

Author

Thelen, Donald C., Jr. ; Chu, Dahlon D.

Author_Institution

Microelectron. Res. Center, New Mexico Univ., Albuquerque, NM, USA

Volume

32

Issue

3

fYear

1997

fDate

3/1/1997 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

337

Lastpage

348

Abstract

A readout detector IC has been developed which is capable of detecting nanoampere photo-current signals of interest in a high (microampere) background illumination or dc noise level (SNR=80 dB). The readout detector sensor IC processes transient signals of interest from a separate photo-diode pixel array chip. Low noise signal conditioning, filtering, and signal thresholding implement smart sensor detection of only “active pixels.” This detector circuit can also be used to perform signal conditioning for other sensor applications that require detection of very small signals in a high background noise environment

Keywords

analogue processing circuits; array signal processing; detector circuits; image sensors; integrated circuit noise; intelligent sensors; optical signal detection; signal processing equipment; switched capacitor filters; thermal noise; 100 Hz to 20 kHz; active pixel detection; filtering; high background noise environment; low noise readout detector circuit; low noise signal conditioning; nanoampere photo-current signal detection; nanoampere sensor applications; photo-diode pixel array chip; readout detector IC; satellite communications; signal thresholding; smart sensor detection; thermal noise; transient signal processing; Background noise; Circuit noise; Detectors; Integrated circuit noise; Intelligent sensors; Lighting; Noise level; Sensor arrays; Signal detection; Signal processing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9200

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/4.557631

Filename

557631