Characterization studies of two novel active pixel sensors

Bohndiek, S. E., Arvanitis, C. D., Royle, G. J., Speller, R. D., Clark, A. T., Crooks, J. P., Prydderch, M. L., Turchetta, R., Blue, A. and O'Shea, V. (2007) Characterization studies of two novel active pixel sensors. Optical Engineering, 46(12), p. 124003. (doi: 10.1117/1.2818224)

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Abstract

A United Kingdom consortium (MI3) is founded to develop advanced CMOS image sensors for scientific applications. “Vanilla,” a 520×520520×520 array of active pixels with 25-μm25-μm pitch is fabricated in the 0.35-μm0.35-μm 4M2P (4 metal, 2 poly) CMOS process and uses a 3.3-V supply. It has flushed reset circuitry to attain low reset noise and random pixel access for high-speed region-of-interest (ROI) readout. “OPIC” is a 64×7264×72 test structure array of digital pixels with 30-μm30-μm pitch, fabricated in 0.25-μm0.25-μm 5M1P (5 metal 1 poly) CMOS process with a 3.3/2.5-V supply. It can perform thresholding via an in-pixel comparator for sparse readout at a high frame rate. Characterization of both sensors is performed under optical illumination and x-ray exposure. For x-ray characterization, both sensors were coupled to a structured thallium-doped cesium iodide (CsI:Tl)(CsI:Tl) scintillator via a fiber optic plate. Vanilla has been found to exhibit 34±3e−34±3e− read noise and a spectral response of 225±5mA∕W225±5mA∕W at 500nm500nm and can read a 6×66×6 ROI at 24,395frames∕s24,395frames∕s. OPIC has 46±3e−46±3e− read noise and can perform sparse readout at up to 3700frames∕s3700frames∕s. Based on these results, Vanilla could be employed for applications where only a small portion of the image contains relevant information, while OPIC is suited to high-speed imaging applications.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:O'Shea, Professor Val and Blue, Dr Andrew
Authors: Bohndiek, S. E., Arvanitis, C. D., Royle, G. J., Speller, R. D., Clark, A. T., Crooks, J. P., Prydderch, M. L., Turchetta, R., Blue, A., and O'Shea, V.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
Journal Name:Optical Engineering
Publisher:SPIE
ISSN:0091-3286
ISSN (Online):1560-2303
Published Online:11 December 2007

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