A 1/3-in 410000-pixel CCD image sensor with feedback field-plate amplifier

The design considerations and performance of a 1/3-in format 410000-pixel interline transfer charge coupled device (CCD) (IL-CCD) image sensor are described. Some techniques have been introduced in order to shrink the pixel size to 6.4(H)×7.5(V) μm without any deterioration in dynamic range and, signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio. The photodiode structure is designed to reduce the knee effect so as to avoid an overflow of the vertical CCD (V-CCD) register up to 500 times the saturating illumination. A depleted-well CCD structure is introduced to maintain the maximum charge-handling capability of 92000 electrons/packet in the V-CCD register, and high enough transfer efficiency of the horizontal CCD (H-CCD) registers with 5-V_p-p pulse driving. A feedback field-plate amplifier (FFPA) is introduced to raise the sensitivity of the output amplifier to 16.2 μV/electron in order to obtain a large enough S/N ratio to the background noise of the peripheral circuits in a video camera