A Low-Noise High Intrascene Dynamic Range CMOS Image Sensor With a 13 to 19b Variable-Resolution Column-Parallel Folding-Integration/Cyclic ADC

Abstract

A low temporal noise and high dynamic range CMOS image sensor is developed. A 1Mpixel CMOS image sensor with column-parallel folding-integration and cyclic ADCs has 80μV <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">rms</sub> (1.2e <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-</sup> ) temporal noise, 82 dB dynamic range using 64 samplings in the folding-integration ADC mode. Very high variable gray-scale resolution of 13b through 19b is attained by changing the number of samplings of pixel outputs. The implemented CMOS image sensor using a 0.18-μm technology has the sensitivity of 10- <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">V</i> /lx·s, the conversion gain of 67- μV/e <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-</sup> , and linear digital code range of more than 4 decades.