Design of a self-correcting active pixel sensor

Audet, Yves; Chapman, Glenn H.

doi:10.1109/dftvs.2001.966748

Cited by 18 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Therefore, there have been several reports on improving the fill-factor (FF) with low power consumption, low voltage operation, low noise, high speed imaging and high dynamic range. Moreover, little research has been done on other topics such as pixel shape optimization [9], pixels on SOI substrate [10], high resolution [11], APS with variable resolution [12,13], self-correcting [14,15] and for low light [16][17][18], etc.…”

Section: After 1997mentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of CMOS image sensors

Bigas

Cabruja

Salví

2006

Microelectronics Journal

483

244

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The role of CMOS Image Sensors since their birth around the 1960s, has been changing a lot. Unlike the past, current CMOS Image Sensors are becoming competitive with regard to Charged Couple Device (CCD) technology. They offer many advantages with respect to CCD, such as lower power consumption, lower voltage operation, on-chip functionality and lower cost. Nevertheless, they are still too noisy and less sensitive than CCDs.Noise and sensitivity are the key-factors to compete with industrial and scientific CCDs. It must be pointed out also that there are several kinds of CMOS Image sensors, each of them to satisfy the huge demand in different areas, such as Digital photography, industrial vision, medical and space applications, electrostatic sensing, automotive, instrumentation and 3D vision systems.In the wake of that, a lot of research has been carried out, focusing on problems to be solved such as sensitivity, noise, power consumption, voltage operation, speed imaging and dynamic range. In this paper, CMOS Image Sensors are reviewed, providing information on the latest advances achieved, their applications, the new challenges and their limitations. In conclusion, the State-of-the-art of CMOS Image Sensors. q

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Section: After 1997mentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of CMOS image sensors

Bigas

Cabruja

Salví

2006

Microelectronics Journal

483

244

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“…In this paper, we build on previous work with the Fault-Tolerant Active Pixel Sensors (FTAPS) [4] and demonstrate in detail how it can be used to intelligently correct hot-pixel defects that develop in-field. The redundancy built into the FTAPS design allows defects leading to hot-pixels to be tolerated without the complexity of altering the fabrication process and without sacrificing image quality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Fault-Tolerant Active Pixel Sensor to Correct In-Field Hot-Pixel Defects

Dudas

Haye

Leung

et al. 2007

22nd IEEE International Symposium on Defect and Fault-Tolerance in VLSI Systems (DFT 2007)

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Solid-state image sensors develop in-field defects in all common environments. Experimentshave demonstrated the growth of significant quantities of hot-pixel defects that degrade the dynamic range of an image sensor and potentially limit low-light imaging. Existing softwareonly techniques for suppressing hot-pixels are inadequate because these defective pixels saturate at relatively low illumination levels. The redundant Fault-Tolerant Active Pixel Sensor design is suggested to isolate point-like hot-pixel defects. Emulated hot-pixels have been induced in hardware implementations of this pixel architecture and measurements of pixel response indicate that it generates an accurate output signal throughout the sensor's entire dynamic range, even when standard pixels would be otherwise saturated by the hot defect. A correction algorithm repairs the final image by building a simple look-up table of illuminationresponse of a working pixel. In emulated hot-pixels, the true illumination value can be recovered with an error of ±5% under typical conditions.

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“…As well, random addressing enables redundancy to be introduced at the pixel level. A Fault Tolerant Active Pixel Sensor (FTAPS) that can correct for common pixel faults that occur in APS' was designed and fabricated in 0.18µm CMOS technology [2,3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous analysis by other authors had suggested that the FTAPS has significantly more noise than a standard APS, resulting in a decrease in its Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) [4]. However, that analysis was based on earlier papers [2,5,6] and does not take into account the relative size of different noise sources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Noise analysis of fault tolerant active pixel sensors

Jung

Izadi

Haye

et al.

20th IEEE International Symposium on Defect and Fault Tolerance in VLSI Systems (DFT'05)

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As digital imagers grow in pixel count and area, the ability to correct for pixel defects becomes more important. A fault tolerant Active Pixel Sensor (APS) has previously been designed and fabricated that can correct for stuck high and stuck low defects. Analyses of the pixel noise for a standard APS and a fault tolerant APS are presented that consider reset noise, photocurrent shot noise, dark current shot noise, transistor thermal noise, transistor flicker noise, operational amplifier noise, and feedback resistor thermal noise. Under worst case conditions (no illumination), the noise of the fault tolerant APS is 1.106× more than a standard APS. At a typical illumination level, the fault tolerant APS noise is nearly unchanged to that of a standard APS. Previous research has shown that the fault tolerant APS is more sensitive than a standard APS, thus the overall signal-to-noise ratio of the fault tolerant APS should be greater than the standard APS except under very low light conditions.

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Design of a self-correcting active pixel sensor

Cited by 18 publications

References 3 publications

Review of CMOS image sensors

Review of CMOS image sensors

A Fault-Tolerant Active Pixel Sensor to Correct In-Field Hot-Pixel Defects

Noise analysis of fault tolerant active pixel sensors

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