Title :
The mechanism and evaluation of hot-carrier-induced performance degradation in 0.18-μm CMOS image sensor
Author :
Hsu, T.H. ; Fang, Y.K. ; Yaung, D.N. ; Wuu, S.G. ; Chien, H.C. ; Wang, C.S. ; Lin, J.S. ; Tseng, C.H. ; Chen, S.F. ; Lin, C.S. ; Lin, C.Y.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng., National Cheng Kung Univ., Tainan, Taiwan
fDate :
6/1/2004 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
An effective method to evaluate the hot-carrier-induced pixel performance degradation of 0.18-μm CMOS active pixel sensor has been reported. The hot carriers generated at the source follower transistor and absorbed by the nearby photodiode will cause the pixel performance degradation such as increase of dark signal and decrease of operation range. Based on the detailed measurements through overall operation conditions, a simple method has been proposed to evaluate the degradation induced by the hot carriers and, thus, provides a design guide to predict pixel performance.
Keywords :
CMOS image sensors; hot carriers; impact ionisation; photodiodes; 0.18 micron; CMOS active pixel sensor; CMOS image sensor; hot-carrier-induced performance degradation; impact ionization; pixel performance degradation; source follower transistor; CMOS image sensors; CMOS technology; Computational Intelligence Society; Degradation; Hot carrier effects; Hot carriers; Image sensors; Photodiodes; Pixel; Signal generators;
Journal_Title :
Electron Device Letters, IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/LED.2004.829000
