Title :
Fixed-Pattern Noise Induced by Transmission Gate in Pinned 4T CMOS Image Sensor Pixels
Author :
Wang, Xinyang ; Rao, Padmakumar R. ; Theuwissen, Albert J P
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Microelectron./DIMES, Delft Univ. of Technol.
Abstract :
In this paper, we present the characterization and analysis of fixed-pattern noise (FPN) in CMOS image sensor (CIS) pixels fabricated in CMOS 0.18-mum process. The experimental results demonstrate that the dark signal degradation of pinned 4T CIS is mainly due to the dark current generated from the transmission gate (TG) instead of the photodiode (PD). From our investigations of gate voltage/charge transfer time - dark current characterization and temperature dependencies, we found that hot-carrier (H-C) induced impact ionization and trap-induced leakage current are the main mechanism of sensor performance degradation
Keywords :
CMOS image sensors; circuit noise; hot carriers; impact ionisation; leakage currents; photoconductivity; 0.18 micron; 4T CMOS image sensor pixels; CMOS process; dark current; dark signal degradation; fixed-pattern noise; hot-carrier; impact ionization; sensor performance degradation; transmission gate; trap-induced leakage current; CMOS image sensors; CMOS process; Computational Intelligence Society; Dark current; Degradation; Image analysis; Photodiodes; Pixel; Signal generators; Temperature sensors;
Conference_Titel :
Solid-State Device Research Conference, 2006. ESSDERC 2006. Proceeding of the 36th European
Conference_Location :
Montreux
Print_ISBN :
1-4244-0301-4
DOI :
10.1109/ESSDER.2006.307705
