A highly sensitive on-chip charge detector for CCD area image sensor

Author

Matsunaga, Yoshiyuki ; Yamashita, Hirofumi ; Ohsawa, Shinji

Author_Institution

Toshiba Corp., Kawasaki, Japan

Volume

26

Issue

4

fYear

1991

fDate

4/1/1991 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

652

Lastpage

656

Abstract

A novel on-chip charge detector for charge-coupled-device (CCD) image sensor applications was fabricated and evaluated. The device, called the double-gate floating surface detector, achieves a charge/voltage conversion gain of 220 μV/electron, a noise equivalent electron of 0.5 electrons r.m.s. and a dynamic range of 79 dB over 3.58-MHz video bandwidth at room temperature. In the small-signal region under 20 electrons, which is the photon counting region for highly sensitive imaging devices, the device was evaluated by observing the discrete voltage levels corresponding to the number of signal electrons on an oscilloscope. This evaluation confirmed that the high charge voltage conversion gain is also maintained in this region

Keywords

CCD image sensors; electric charge; 3.58 MHz; CCD area image sensor; charge detector; charge-coupled-device; double-gate floating surface detector; highly sensitive imaging devices; onchip detector; Bandwidth; Charge coupled devices; Detectors; Dynamic range; Electrons; Image converters; Image sensors; Temperature distribution; Temperature sensors; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9200

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/4.75068

Filename

75068