• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.270-274
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• 2006

A color filter array (CFA) helps a single electrical image sensor to recognize color images. The Red-Green-Blue (RGB) Bayer CFA is commonly used, but the amount of the light which arrives at the photodiode is attenuated with this CFA. Red-White-Blue (RWB) CFA increases the amount of the light which arrives at photodiode by using White (W) pixels instead of Green (G) pixels. However, white pixels are saturated earlier than red and blue pixels. The pseudo multiple capture scheme and the corresponding RWB CFA were proposed to overcome the early saturation problem of W pixels. The prototype CMOS image sensor (CIS) was fabricated with $0.35-{\mu}m$ CMOS process. The proposed CIS solves the early saturation problem of W pixels and increases the dynamic range.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.35-41
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• 2017

We propose a novel multi-photodiode array (MPDA) based retinal implant IC with on/off stimulation strategy for a visual prosthesis with improved spatial resolution. An active pixel sensor combined with a comparator enables generation of biphasic current pulses when light intensity meets a threshold condition. The threshold is tuned by changing the discharging time of the active pixel sensor for various light intensity environments. A prototype of the 30-channel retinal implant IC was fabricated with a unit pixel area of $0.021mm^2$, and the stimulus level up to $354{\mu}A$ was measured with the threshold ranging from 400 lx to 13120 lx.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.102-106
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• 2005

A low dark current CMOS image sensor (CIS) pixel without any process modification is developed. Dark current is mainly generated at the interface region of shallow trench isolation (STI) structure. Proposed pixel reduces the dark current effectively by separating the STI region from the photodiode junction using simple layout modification. Test sensor array that has both proposed and conventional pixels is fabricated using 0.18 m CMOS process and the characteristics of the sensor are measured. The result shows that the dark current of the proposed pixel is 0.93fA/pixel that is two times lower than the conventional design.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.485-495
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• 2023

The pixel size in high-resolution complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors continues to shrink due to chip size limitations. However, the pixel pitch's miniaturization causes deterioration of optical performance. As one solution, a quad color filter (CF) array with pixel binning has been developed to enhance sensitivity. For high sensitivity, the microlens structure also needs to be optimized as the CF arrays change. In this paper, the covered microlens, which consist of four microlenses covered by one large microlens, are proposed for the quad CF array in the backside illumination pixel structure. To evaluate the optical performance, the suggested microlens structure was simulated from 0.5 ㎛ to 1.0 ㎛ pixels at the center and edge of the sensors. Moreover, all pixel structures were compared with and without in-pixel deep trench isolation (DTI), which works to distribute incident light uniformly into each photodiode. The suggested structure was evaluated with an optical simulation using the finite-difference time-domain method for numerical analysis of the optical characteristics. Compared to the conventional microlens, the suggested microlens show 29.1% and 33.9% maximum enhancement of sensitivity at the center and edge of the sensor, respectively. Therefore, the covered microlens demonstrated the highly sensitive image sensor with a quad CF array.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea TE
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.45-50
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• 2005

A UV camera is being used in various application regions such as industry, medical science, military, and environment monitoring. A ROIC(ReadOut IC) is developed and can read the responses from UV photodiode sensors which are made with III-V nitride semiconductors of GaN series haying high resolution and high efficiency. To design FPA(Focal Plane Array) UV $8{\times}8$ ROIC, the photodiode type sensor devices are modeled as the capacitor type ones. The ROIC reads out signals from the detector at)d outputs sequentially pixel signals after amplifying and noise filtering of them. The ROIC is fabricated using the $0.5{\mu}m$ 2Poly 3Metal N-well CMOS process. And then, it and photodiode array are hybrid bonded by gold stud bumping process using ACP(Anisotropic Conductive Paste). After the packaging, UV images appearing on PC verified the operations of the ROIC.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.223-227
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• 2017

Conventional CMOS image sensors (CISs) have a trade-off relationship between dynamic range and sensitivity. In addition, their sensitivity is determined by the photodiode capacitance. In this paper, CISs that consist of dual-sensitivity photodiodes in a unit pixel are proposed for achieving wide dynamic ranges. In the proposed CIS, signal charges are generated in the dual photodiodes during integration, and these generated signal charges are accumulated in the floating-diffusion node. The signal charges generated in the high-sensitivity photodiodes are transferred to the input of the comparator through an additional source follower, and the signal voltages converted by the source follower are compared with a reference voltage in the comparator. The output voltage of the comparator determines which photodiode is selected. Therefore, the proposed CIS composed of dual-sensitivity photodiodes extends the dynamic range according to the intensity of light. A $94{\times}150$ pixel array image sensor was designed using a conventional $0.18{\mu}m$ CMOS process and its performance was simulated.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.55-60
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• 2007

This paper presents a compact double resolution scheme for the optical angle sensor based on 1-dimensional CMOS photodiode pixel array. All the pixels are divided into the even pixel and the odd pixel groups. The winner take all circuit is provided for each group. The proposed interpolation scheme increases the resolution by 2 from the winner addresses and winner values. The interpolation scheme can be implemented without any additional pixels or winner take all circuits and require only a comparator and a XOR gate. The proposed pixel array chip that has 336 photodiode pixels with $5.6{\mu}m$ pitch was fabricated with $0.35{\mu}m$ CMOS process and was assembled with a $50{\mu}m$ slit to form an angle sensor. The measured resolution is $0.1{\circ}$ with the proposed interpolation. The chip consumes 35mW and provides 8k samples per second.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.857-861
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• 2012

FPN (fixed-pattern-noise) mainly comes from the device or pattern mismatches in pixel and color filter, pixel photodiode leakage in CMOS image sensor. In this paper, optical stack module related pixel FPN was investigated and the classification of pixel FPN contribution with the individual optical module process was presented. The methodology and procedure would be helpful in reducing the greater pixel FPN and distinguishing the complex FPN sources with respect to various noise factors.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2015

The trend of x-ray image sensor has been evolved from an amorphous silicon sensor to a crystal silicon sensor. A crystal silicon X-ray sensor, meaning a X-ray CIS (CMOS image sensor), is consisted of three transistors (Trs), i.e., a Reset Transistor, a Source Follower and a Select Transistor, and a photodiode. They are highly sensitive to radiation exposure. As the frequency of exposure to radiation increases, the quality of the imaging device dramatically decreases. The most well known effects of a X-ray CIS due to the radiation damage are increments in the reset voltage and dark currents. In this study, a pixel array of a X-ray CIS was made of $20{\times}20pixels$ and this pixel array was exposed to a high radiation dose. The radiation source was Co-60 and the total radiation dose was increased from 1 to 9 kGy with a step of 1 kGy. We irradiated the small pixel array to get the increments data of the reset voltage and the dark currents. Also, we simulated the radiation effects of the pixel by MCNP (Monte Carlo N-Particle) simulation. From the comparison of actual data and simulation data, the most affected location could be determined and the cause of the increments of the reset voltage and dark current could be found.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.65-73
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• 1996

One of the important factor in drug stuffs to a patient is to inject exact amount with stable flow rates. Since improper injection amount and flow rates would cause bad effect to recovery of a patient, the detecting sensors with high sensitivity is required for an injection pump systems' performance improvement. In this study, the three sensors, piezo film sensor, photo transistor and photo array, were compared to find best one for an injection pump monitoring system. Using suggested data processing technique and photo array sensors, we could minimize the effect of interference, disturbance, illumination, and sensitivity change caused by sensor's position. According to the experiments, the photo array showed the higher reliance than any other the three types of sensors.