TY - JOUR
T1 - Temporal noise analysis of charge-domain sampling readout circuits for cmos image sensors
AU - Ge, Xiaoliang
AU - Theuwissen, Albert J.P.
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - This paper presents a temporal noise analysis of charge-domain sampling readout circuits for Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors. In order to address the trade-off between the low input-referred noise and high dynamic range, a Gm-cell-based pixel together with a charge-domain correlated-double sampling (CDS) technique has been proposed to provide a way to efficiently embed a tunable conversion gain along the read-out path. Such readout topology, however, operates in a non-stationery large-signal behavior, and the statistical properties of its temporal noise are a function of time. Conventional noise analysis methods for CMOS image sensors are based on steady-state signal models, and therefore cannot be readily applied for Gm-cell-based pixels. In this paper, we develop analysis models for both thermal noise and flicker noise in Gm-cell-based pixels by employing the time-domain linear analysis approach and the non-stationary noise analysis theory, which help to quantitatively evaluate the temporal noise characteristic of Gm-cell-based pixels. Both models were numerically computed in MATLAB using design parameters of a prototype chip, and compared with both simulation and experimental results. The good agreement between the theoretical and measurement results verifies the effectiveness of the proposed noise analysis models.
AB - This paper presents a temporal noise analysis of charge-domain sampling readout circuits for Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors. In order to address the trade-off between the low input-referred noise and high dynamic range, a Gm-cell-based pixel together with a charge-domain correlated-double sampling (CDS) technique has been proposed to provide a way to efficiently embed a tunable conversion gain along the read-out path. Such readout topology, however, operates in a non-stationery large-signal behavior, and the statistical properties of its temporal noise are a function of time. Conventional noise analysis methods for CMOS image sensors are based on steady-state signal models, and therefore cannot be readily applied for Gm-cell-based pixels. In this paper, we develop analysis models for both thermal noise and flicker noise in Gm-cell-based pixels by employing the time-domain linear analysis approach and the non-stationary noise analysis theory, which help to quantitatively evaluate the temporal noise characteristic of Gm-cell-based pixels. Both models were numerically computed in MATLAB using design parameters of a prototype chip, and compared with both simulation and experimental results. The good agreement between the theoretical and measurement results verifies the effectiveness of the proposed noise analysis models.
KW - Charge-domain sampling
KW - CMOS image sensor
KW - Dynamic range
KW - Low noise
KW - Non-steady-state signal analysis
KW - Pixel-level amplification
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85042685161&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:13645115-de69-41fa-8ed7-fa2b6ddb4049
U2 - 10.3390/s18030707
DO - 10.3390/s18030707
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85042685161
SN - 1424-8220
VL - 18
SP - 1
EP - 16
JO - Sensors
JF - Sensors
IS - 3
M1 - 707
ER -