Title :
Characterization of Quanta Image Sensor Pump-Gate Jots With Deep Sub-Electron Read Noise
Author :
Jiaju Ma ; Starkey, Dakota ; Rao, Arun ; Odame, Kofi ; Fossum, Eric R.
Author_Institution :
Thayer Sch. of Eng., Dartmouth Coll., Hanover, NH, USA
Abstract :
Characterization of quanta image sensor pixels with deep sub-electron read noise is reported. Pixels with conversion gain of $423mu text{V}$ /e- and read noise as low as 0.22e- r.m.s. were measured. Dark current is 0.1e-/s at room temperature, and lag less than 0.1e-. This is one of the first works reporting detailed characterization of image sensor pixels with mean signals from sub-electron (0.25e-) to a few electrons level. Such pixels in a nearly-conventional CMOS image sensor process will allow realization of photon-counting image sensors for a variety of applications.
Keywords :
CMOS image sensors; integrated circuit noise; photon counting; CMOS image sensor process; conversion gain; dark current; deep subelectron read noise; electron level; photon-counting image sensor; quanta image sensor pixel; quanta image sensor pump-gate jot; Bit error rate; CMOS image sensors; Dark current; Histograms; Noise; CMOS Image Sensor; CMOS image sensor; High Conversion Gain; Jot Device; Low Dark Current; Low Read Noise; Photon Counting; Quanta Image Sensor; high conversion gain; jot device; low dark current; low read noise; photon counting; quanta image sensor;
Journal_Title :
Electron Devices Society, IEEE Journal of the
DOI :
10.1109/JEDS.2015.2480767
