Prediction of CMOS APS design enabling maximum photoresponse for scalable CMOS technologies

This brief represents the CMOS active pixel sensor (APS) photoresponse model use for maximum pixel photosignal prediction in scalable CMOS technologies. We have proposed a simple approximation determining the technology-scaling effect on the overall device photoresponse. Based on the above approximation and the data obtained from the CMOS 0.5 μm process thorough investigation we have theoretically predicted, designed, measured and compared the optimal (in the output photosignal sense) pixel in a more advanced, CMOS 0.35 μm technology. Comparison of both, our theoretically predicted and modeled results and the results obtained from the measurements of an actual pixel array gives excellent agreement. It verifies the presented scaling-effect approximation and validates the usefulness of our model for design optimization in scalable CMOS technologies.