Image sensing with maximum sensitivity using industrial CMOS technology
Image sensing with maximum sensitivity using industrial CMOS technology
复制标题
使用工业 CMOS 技术实现最高灵敏度的图像传感
DOI：
10.1117/12.281222
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发表时间：
1997
影响因子：
3.5
通讯作者：
P. Seitz
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
P. Seitz
当今的半导体工业以硅作为半导体，具有优异的机械、化学和电气性能。此外，硅在将 0.1 - 1150 nm 波长范围内的光子转换为电荷载流子对方面非常有效。虽然这种光电转换过程基本上没有噪声，但收集到的光电荷的电子检测实际上是造成光电检测噪声的原因。限制性物理效应是第一个检测晶体管通道中的约翰逊（电阻器）噪声，该噪声取决于输入电容、温度和检测带宽。可以通过多种方式利用这种关系来实现 CCD 和 CMOS 技术中的图像传感器，这些传感器表现出子电子检测噪声，达到单光子检测的最终物理极限。此外，在实际的电子检测过程之前，可以采用物理效应来放大电荷信号：雪崩倍增。所描述的许多低噪声图像传感器可以在标准 CCD 或 CMOS 制造工艺中实现，为在物理光电检测极限下运行的经济实惠的光学微系统开辟了令人兴奋的前景。
Today's semiconductor industry is based on silicon as a semiconductor with excellent mechanical, chemical and electrical properties. Additionally, silicon is very effective in converting photons in the wavelength range of 0.1 - 1150 nm into charge carrier pairs. While this photoconversion process occurs essentially noise-free, the electronic detection of the collected photocharge is effectively responsible for the photodetection noise. The limiting physical effect is Johnson (resistor) noise in the channel of the first detection transistor, which depends on the input capacitance, the temperature and the detection bandwidth. This relationship can be exploited in several ways for the realization of image sensors in CCD and CMOS technology that exhibit sub-electron detection noise, reaching the ultimate physical limit of single-photon detection. Additionally, a physical effect can be employed for the amplification of charge signals before the actual electronic detection process: avalanche multiplication. Many of the described low-noise image sensors can be implemented in standard CCD or CMOS fabrication processes, opening up exciting prospects for affordable optical microsystems performing at the physical photodetection limits.