Behavioral modeling of a CMOS video sensor platform using systemc AMS/TLM

This work presents how the recent SystemC AMS 1.0 standard (analog and mixed-signal extension to the SystemC 1666 IEEE standard) is suitable for modeling a CMOS image sensor (CIS). The model describes many optical and electrical effects at a high level of abstraction, going beyond the limitations of the previously developed VHDL-AMS model. A comparison among SystemC AMS models developed at different levels of abstraction is shown. The SystemC AMS model of the image sensor is integrated in a SystemC TLM-2.0 platform that contains also the algorithms of the image signal processor (ISP) and a module that performs the comparison between the CIS input image and the reconstructed image. The resulting SystemC AMS/TLM platform demonstrates how the tight interaction between the SystemC AMS image sensor model and the SystemC TLM ISP model allows an early validation of the embedded software. Simulation results are shown and future related works discussed.