High-efficiency 3D CMOS image sensor

Author

Chen, Oscal T.-C ; Kuan-Hsien Lin ; Zhe Ming Liu

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Nat. Chung Cheng Univ., Chiayi, Taiwan

fYear

2013

fDate

June 30 2013-July 4 2013

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

2

Abstract

A 44×36-pixel 3D CMOS image sensor is developed based on the Time-Of-Flight (TOF) scheme where N-well_P-substrate photodiodes with a large breakdown voltage are adopted. Additionally, the breakdown voltages of photodiodes are well explored with consideration of crosstalk. This image sensor includes photodiodes, pixel sensing circuits, sense amplifiers, pixel-activated decoders, Time-to-Digital Converters (TDC) and a TDC readout unit. A negative feedback mechanism in pixel sensing circuits is used to accelerate sensing response. The bus-shared topology is employed to minimize the overhead of parallel reading. By using the TSMC 0.35μm CMOS technology, a 44×36-pixel 3D image sensor was successfully implemented to have detection speed of 32ns and depth resolution up to 4 cm.

Keywords

CMOS image sensors; amplifiers; optical crosstalk; photodiodes; time-digital conversion; 3D CMOS image sensor; TDC readout unit; TOF scheme; TSMC CMOS technology; breakdown voltage; bus-shared topology; crosstalk; n-well_p-substrate photodiodes; negative feedback mechanism; pixel sensing circuits; pixel-activated decoders; sense amplifiers; size 0.35 mum; time-of-flight scheme; time-to-digital converters; CMOS integrated circuits; Crosstalk; Image sensors; Photodiodes; Three-dimensional displays; Voltage measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

OptoElectronics and Communications Conference held jointly with 2013 International Conference on Photonics in Switching (OECC/PS), 2013 18th

Conference_Location

Kyoto

Type

conf

Filename

6597546