Application of Plasma Coupled Device to Solid State Image Sensors

Abstract

A new self-scanned image sensor using a PCD as a scanner is proposed. A 64 bit (MOS type) and a 128 bit (bipolar type) linear photosensor arrays with the PCD scanner were designed and fabricated successfully. The PCD scanner can be operated by such a low clock pulse voltage as 1 to 5 V. Accordingly, a S/N ratio is high because the clock noise from the clock pulse is low. A S/N ratio of more than 35 dB were experimentally obtained without any signal processing. Moreover, the new device proposed here has the advantage of a simple structure and the device with high bit numbers is expected.