A SystemC AMS/TLM platform for CMOS video sensors

This work presents how an image acquisition system based on a CMOS image sensor (CIS) has been modeled by means of the recently standardized analog and mixed-signal (AMS) extension to the SystemC 1666 IEEE standard. Many optical and electrical effects at a high level of abstraction are described by the model while limiting the model complexity for making the model suitable to top-level simulations and performance analysis. A comparison among SystemC AMS models developed at different levels of abstraction is shown. The Sys-temC AMS model of the image sensor is supplied with input scenarios that mimic the scene captured by an image sensor inserted in a dark-box for tuning purposes. The model is integrated in a SystemC TLM platform that contains also the image signal processor (ISP) algorithms and a comparator between the detected image and the processed one. 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 development/validation of the embedded software. Simulation results are shown and future related works discussed.