An over-100dB wide dynamic range solid-state image sensor with high sensitivity and high S/N ratio.

本研究的目的是提出一种相当于目前性能最好的超过五位数(100dB)动态范围的固态图像传感器的高灵敏度、高S/N性能的固态图像传感器，并为该技术的实现奠定基础。第一年，成功设计了横向溢出电容与每个像素的钉扎光电二极管相邻的宽动态范围的cmos图像传感器，并在同一曝光时间内存储超过饱和载流子，达到了100db的动态范围特性。在接下来的一年里，CMOS图像传感器将定量地检测在高亮度光照射下对泄漏电流、暗电流和噪声的容忍度。从光电二极管溢出的光电子能够有效地积累在横向溢出电容器中，对相邻像素的泄漏对应于10^-3或更小的比率，并且积累在横向溢出电容器中的信号对噪声的容忍度是对光电二极管噪声信号的容忍度的100倍或更多。此外，改变了像素中横向溢出电容的设计和操作时序，实现了彩色图像传感器，提高了光电转换特性的线性度和灵敏度。制作了有效像素数为640×480、像素尺寸为7.5微米的彩色CMOS图像传感器，获得了动态范围为102dB的高分辨率彩色摄像性能。通过对该芯片的研究，为实现具有良好的时间和空间采样的宽动态范围、高质量的成像技术奠定了基础。

The purpose of this research is to propose the solid state image sensor with high sensitivity and high S/N performance that equals the solid state image sensor of a current best performance and exceed five digits (100dB) dynamic range and to build the base of the achievement technology.In the first year, it has succeeded in the design, making a chip and camera operation of the wide dynamic range CMOS image sensor that have the lateral overflow capacitor being adjacent to the pinned-photodiode of each pixel and storage exceeded saturation carriers in the same exposure time, and the characteristic of the dynamic range of 100dB was achieved. In the next year, the CMOS image sensor quantitatively examines the tolerance to the leakage current, dark current and noise at a high luminance light irradiation. The photoelectron that overflowed from the photodiode was able to accumulate in the lateral overflow capacitor effectively and the leakage to the adjacent pixels corresponds to a ratio of the 10^<-3> or less, and the tolerance to the noise of the signal that accumulated in the lateral overflow capacitor had 100 times or more the tolerance for the noise signal of the photodiode. Moreover, the change of the design of the lateral overflow capacitor in the pixel and the operation timing have been done to achieve the color image sensor, and the improvement of linearity of photoelectric conversion characteristic and sensitivity. The color CMOS image sensor having effective number of pixels 640x480, pixel size 7.5um was fabricated, and the high-resolution color taking picture performance that had the characteristic of the dynamic range of 102dB was achieved. By researching this CMOS image sensor, the base of the wide dynamic range and high quality imaging technology with good time and spatial sampling was able to be built.