A new low-power readout shift register for CMOS image sensors

This paper proposed a DLL-based low-power high-speed readout shift register for CMOS image sensors. This shift register performs the shift function by the way that much like the domino does and the delay of each stage in the shift sequence is precisely controlled by a DLL. Unlike the ordinary shift register, there is no clock tree for the timing control, so the power consumed by the DLL-based shift register is changing much more slightly with the chain length and the shift speed of the shift register than the traditional DFF-based scanners. Simulation and analysis find that this kind of shift register is much suit for the low-power CMOS image sensors that for the high-resolution and high capturing speed video applications.