• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.191-197
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• 2005

When fabricating a vision chip, we should consider the noise problem, such as the fixed pattern noise(FPN) due to the process variation. In this paper, we propose an edge-detection circuit based on biological retina using the offset-free column readout circuit to reduce the FPN occurring in the photo-detector. The offset-free column readout circuit consists of one source follower, one capacitor and five transmission gates. As a result, it is simpler and smaller than a general correlated double sampling(CDS) circuit. A vision chip for edge detection has been designed and fabricated using $0.35\;{\mu}m$ 2-poly 4-metal CMOS technology, and its output characteristics have been investigated.