A 10-bit single-slope analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for time-delay-integration CMOS image sensor was proposed. A programmable ramp generator was applied to accomplish the error calibration and improve the linearity. The ADC was fabricated in a 180 nm 1P4M CMOS process. Experimental results indicate that the differential nonlinearity and integral nonlinearity were 0.51/-0.53 LSB and 0.63/-0.71 LSB, respectively. The sampling rate of the ADC was 32 kHz.
A switched-capacitor amplifier with an accurate gain of two that is insensitive to component mismatch is proposed.This structure is based on associating two sets of two capacitors in cross series during the amplification phase.This circuit permits the common-mode voltage of the sample signal to reach full swing.Using the charge-complement technique,the proposed amplifier can reduce the impact of parasitic capacitors on the gain accuracy effectively.Simulation results show that as sample signal common-mode voltage changes,the difference between the minimum and maximum gain error is less than 0.03%.When the capacitor mismatch is increased from 0 to 0.2%,the gain error is deteriorated by 0.00015%）.In all simulations,the gain of amplifier is 69 dB.
Abs A method to judge complete charger transfer is proposed for a four-transistor CMOS image sensor with a large pixel size. Based on the emission current theory, a qualitative photoresponse model is established to the preliminary prediction. Further analysis of noise for incomplete charge transfer predicts the noise variation. The test pixels were fabricated in a specialized 0.18 #m CMOS image sensor process and two different processes of buried N layer implantation are compared. The trend prediction corresponds with the test results, especially as it can distinguish an unobvious incomplete charge transfer. The method helps us judge whether the charge transfer time satisfies the requirements of the readout circuit for the given process especially for pixels of a large size.
A switched-current sample-and-hold circuit with low charge injection was proposed. To obtain low noise and charge injection, the zero-voltage switching was used to remove the signal-dependent charge injection, and the signal-independent charge injection was reduced by removing the feed-through voltage from the input port of the memory transistor directly. This current sample-and-hold circuit was implemented using CMOS 180 nm 1.8 V technology. For a 0.8 MHz sinusoidal signal input, the simulated signal-to-noise and distortion ratio and total harmonic distortion were improved from 53.74 dB and -51.24 dB to 56.53 dB and -54.36 dB at the sampling rate of 20 MHz respectively, with accuracy of 9.01 bit and power consumption of 0.44 mW.
An addition scheme applicable to time-delay integration (TDI) CMOS image sensor is proposed,which adds signals in the charge domain in the pixel array.A two-shared pixel structure adopting two-stage charge transfer is introduced,together with the rolling shutter with an undersampling readout timing.Compared with the conventional TDI addition methods,the proposed scheme can reduce the addition operations by half in the pixel array,which decreases the power consumption of addition circuits outside the pixel array.The timing arrangement and pixel structure are analyzed in detail.The simulation results show that the proposed pixel structure can achieve the charge addition with negligible nonlinearity,therefore the power consumption of the periphery addition circuits can be reduced by half theoretically.
A single event upset （SEU） tolerant latch with a triple-interlocked structure is presented. Its self-recovery mechanism is implemented by using three pairs of guard-gates and inverters to construct feedback lines inside the structure. This latch effectively suppresses the effects of charge deposition at any single internal node caused by particle strikes. Three recently reported SEU-hardened latches are chosen and compared with this latch in terms of reliability. The potential problems that these three latches could still get flipped due to single event effects or single event effects plus crosstalk coupling are pointed out, which can be mitigated by this proposed latch. The SEU tolerance of each latch design is evaluated through circuit-level SEU injection simulation. Furthermore, discussions on the crosstalk robustness and some other characteristics of these latches are also presented.
