CMOS IMAGERS
CMOS Imagers
From Phototransduction to Image Processing
Edited by
Orly Yadid-Pecht
Ben-Gurion University,
Beer-Sheva, Israel
and
Ralph Etienne-Cummings
Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore, U.S.A.
KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK, BOSTON, DORDRECHT, LONDON, MOSCOW
eBook ISBN:
Print ISBN:
1-4020-7962-1
1-4020-7961-3
©2004 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.
Print ©2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers
Dordrecht
All rights reserved
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Dedication
To our loved ones.
Contents
Dedication
Contributing Authors
Preface
Introduction
1. Fundamentals of Silicon-Based Phototransduction
HONGHAO JI AND PAMELA A. ABSHIRE
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
Introduction
Background physics of light sensing
Silicon-based photodetectors
Semiconductor image sensors
Information rate
Summary
2. CMOS APS MTF Modeling
IGOR SHCHERBACK AND ORLY YADID-PECHT
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
Introduction
Experimental details
Physical analysis
The unified model description
Results and discussion
Summary
v
ix
xi
xiii
1
2
8
31
39
49
53
62
63
67
68
72
viii
CMOS Imagers: From Phototransduction to Image Processing
3. Photoresponse Analysis and Pixel Shape Optimization for CMOS APS
IGOR SHCHERBACK AND ORLY YADID-PECHT
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
Introduction
Photoresponse model
Comparison with experimental results
CMOS APS pixel photoresponse prediction
for scalable CMOS technologies
3.5
Summary
4. Active Pixel Sensor Design: From Pixels to Systems
ALEXANDER FISH AND ORLY YADID-PECHT
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
Introduction
CMOS image sensors
APS system-on-a-chip approach
Summary
5. Focal-Plane Analog Image Processing
MATTHEW A. CLAPP, VIKTOR GRUEV,
AND RALPH ETIENNE-CUMMINGS
5.1
5.2
Introduction
Current-domain image processing:
5.3
5.4
the general image processor
Voltage-domain image processing:
the temporal difference imager
Mixed-mode image processing:
the centroid-tracking imager
5.5
Conclusions
6. CMOS Imager Non-Uniformity Correction Using
Floating-Gate Adaptation
MARC COHEN AND GERT CAUWENBERGHS
6.1
6.2
6.3
6.4
6.5
6.6
6.7
6.8
6.9
Introduction
Adaptive non-uniformity correction
Canceling gain non-uniformity
Intensity equalization
Focal plane VLSI implementation
VLSI system architecture
Experimental results
Discussion
Conclusions
Appendix: List of Symbols
Index
75
80
85
88
96
99
102
113
136
141
143
161
170
199
203
205
207
208
210
213
213
215
219
223
232
Contributing Authors
Pamela A. Abshire
University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Gert Cauwenberghs
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
Matthew A. Clapp
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
Marc Cohen
University of Maryland College, Park, MD, USA
Ralph Etienne-Cummings
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
Alexander Fish
Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel
Viktor Gruev
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
Honghao Ji
University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Igor Shcherback
Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel
Orly Yadid-Pecht
Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel
Preface
The idea of writing a book on CMOS imaging has been brewing for
several years. It was placed on a fast track after we agreed to organize a
tutorial on CMOS sensors for the 2004 IEEE International Symposium on
Circuits and Systems (ISCAS 2004). This tutorial defined the structure of the
book, but as first time authors/editors, we had a lot to learn about the
logistics of putting together information from multiple sources. Needless to
say, it was a long road between the tutorial and the book, and it took more
than a few months to complete. We hope that you will find our journey
worthwhile and the collated information useful.
The laboratories of the authors are located at many universities
distributed around the world. Their unifying theme, however, is the
advancement of knowledge for the development of systems for CMOS
imaging and image processing. We hope that this book will highlight the
ideas that have been pioneered by the authors, while providing a roadmap
for new practitioners in this field to exploit exciting opportunities to
integrate imaging and “smartness” on a single VLSI chip. The potential of
these smart imaging systems is still unfulfilled. Hence, there is still plenty of
research and development to be done.
We wish to thank our co-authors, students, administrative assistants, and
laboratory co-workers for their excitement and enthusiasm for being
involved in this project. Specifically, we would like to thank Alex Belenky,
Rachel Mahluf-Zilberberg, and Ruslan Sergienko from the VLSI Systems
Center at Ben-Gurion University.
We also would like to thank our mentors, Eric Fossum, Jan van der
Spiegel, Albert Theuwissen, Mohammed Ismail, Dan McGrath, Eby