Modelling and characterization of small photosensors in advanced CMOS technologies

The rapid scaling of CMOS technologies and the development of optimized CIS (CMOS Image Sensor) processes for CMOS vision products has not been met by a similar effort in a comprehensive study of the main physical phenomena dominating the behavior of pixels at these technological nodes. This work provides a study of the behaviour of small photodetectors in advanced CMOS technologies in order to evaluate the impact of the geometry on the pixel photoresponse. Several models were developed paying special attention to the peripheral collection. The results suggest that the largest active area no longer necessarily guarantees the optimum response and show the significance of the lateral contribution for small photodiodes. That is, they establish the need to find a trade-off between the active area and the collecting area surrounding the junction to maximize the response. Based on the solution of the two-dimensional steady-state equation in the surroundings of the junction, an analytical model for uniformly illuminated p-n+ junction photodiodes was proposed. It is compact, general and scalable. In order to be used in Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools, the model was implemented in a Hardware Description Language (HDL) and used for circuit simulations to illustrate the potential of the model for the optimization of the pixel performance

CMOS Approach to Compressed-domain Image Acquisition

A hardware implementation of a real-time compressed-domain image acquisition system is demonstrated. The system performs front-end computational imaging, whereby the inner product between an image and an arbitrarily-specified mask is implemented in silicon. The acquisition system is based on an intelligent readout integrated circuit (iROIC) that is capable of providing independent bias voltages to individual detectors, which enables implementation of spatial multiplication with any prescribed mask through a bias-controlled response-modulation mechanism. The modulated pixels are summed up in the image grabber to generate the compressed samples, namely aperture-coded coefficients, of an image. A rigorous bias-selection algorithm is presented to the readout circuit, which exploits the bias-dependent nature of the imager’s responsivity. Proven functionality of the hardware in transform coding compressed image acquisition, silicon-level compressive sampling, in pixel nonuniformity correction and hardware-level implementation of region-based enhancement is demonstrated

A micropower centroiding vision processor

Published versio

Bio-inspired electronics for micropower vision processing

Vision processing is a topic traditionally associated with neurobiology; known to encode, process and interpret visual data most effectively. For example, the human retina; an exquisite sheet of neurobiological wetware, is amongst the most powerful and efficient vision processors known to mankind. With improving integrated technologies, this has generated considerable research interest in the microelectronics community in a quest to develop effective, efficient and robust vision processing hardware with real-time capability. This thesis describes the design of a novel biologically-inspired hybrid analogue/digital vision chip ORASIS1 for centroiding, sizing and counting of enclosed objects. This chip is the first two-dimensional silicon retina capable of centroiding and sizing multiple objects2 in true parallel fashion. Based on a novel distributed architecture, this system achieves ultra-fast and ultra-low power operation in comparison to conventional techniques. Although specifically applied to centroid detection, the generalised architecture in fact presents a new biologically-inspired processing paradigm entitled: distributed asynchronous mixed-signal logic processing. This is applicable to vision and sensory processing applications in general that require processing of large numbers of parallel inputs, normally presenting a computational bottleneck. Apart from the distributed architecture, the specific centroiding algorithm and vision chip other original contributions include: an ultra-low power tunable edge-detection circuit, an adjustable threshold local/global smoothing network and an ON/OFF-adaptive spiking photoreceptor circuit. Finally, a concise yet comprehensive overview of photodiode design methodology is provided for standard CMOS technologies. This aims to form a basic reference from an engineering perspective, bridging together theory with measured results. Furthermore, an approximate photodiode expression is presented, aiming to provide vision chip designers with a basic tool for pre-fabrication calculations

CMOS optical centroid processor for an integrated Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor

A Shack Hartmann wavefront sensor is used to detect the distortion of light in an optical wavefront. It does this by sampling the wavefront with an array of lenslets and measuring the displacement of focused spots from reference positions. These displacements are linearly related to the local wavefront tilts from which the entire wavefront can be reconstructed. In most Shack Hartmann wavefront sensors, a CCD is used to sample the entire wavefront, typically at a rate of 25 to 60 Hz, and a whole frame of light spots is read out before their positions are processed. This results in a data bottleneck. In this design, parallel processing is achieved by incorporating local centroid processing for each focused spot, thereby requiring only reduced bandwidth data to be transferred off-chip at a high rate. To incorporate centroid processing at the sensor level requires high levels of circuit integration not possible with a CCD technology. Instead a standard 0.7J..lmCMOS technology was used but photodetector structures for this technology are not well characterised. As such characterisation of several common photodiode structures was carried out which showed good responsitivity of the order of 0.3 AIW. Prior to fabrication on-chip, a hardware emulation system using a reprogrammable FPGA was built which implemented the centroiding algorithm successfully. Subsequently, the design was implemented as a single-chip CMOS solution. The fabricated optical centroid processor successfully computed and transmitted the centroids at a rate of more than 2.4 kHz, which when integrated as an array of tilt sensors will allow a data rate that is independent of the number of tilt sensors' employed. Besides removing the data bottleneck present in current systems, the design also offers advantages in terms of power consumption, system size and cost. The design was also shown to be extremely scalable to a complete low cost real time adaptive optics system

CMOS optical centroid processor for an integrated Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor

A Shack Hartmann wavefront sensor is used to detect the distortion of light in an optical wavefront. It does this by sampling the wavefront with an array of lenslets and measuring the displacement of focused spots from reference positions. These displacements are linearly related to the local wavefront tilts from which the entire wavefront can be reconstructed. In most Shack Hartmann wavefront sensors, a CCD is used to sample the entire wavefront, typically at a rate of 25 to 60 Hz, and a whole frame of light spots is read out before their positions are processed. This results in a data bottleneck. In this design, parallel processing is achieved by incorporating local centroid processing for each focused spot, thereby requiring only reduced bandwidth data to be transferred off-chip at a high rate. To incorporate centroid processing at the sensor level requires high levels of circuit integration not possible with a CCD technology. Instead a standard 0.7J..lmCMOS technology was used but photodetector structures for this technology are not well characterised. As such characterisation of several common photodiode structures was carried out which showed good responsitivity of the order of 0.3 AIW. Prior to fabrication on-chip, a hardware emulation system using a reprogrammable FPGA was built which implemented the centroiding algorithm successfully. Subsequently, the design was implemented as a single-chip CMOS solution. The fabricated optical centroid processor successfully computed and transmitted the centroids at a rate of more than 2.4 kHz, which when integrated as an array of tilt sensors will allow a data rate that is independent of the number of tilt sensors' employed. Besides removing the data bottleneck present in current systems, the design also offers advantages in terms of power consumption, system size and cost. The design was also shown to be extremely scalable to a complete low cost real time adaptive optics system

Adaptive beam control and analysis in fluorescence microscopy

This thesis details three novel advances in instrumentation that are each related to performance improvement in wide-field visible-spectrum imaging systems. In each case our solution concerns the assessment and improvement of optical imaging quality. The three instruments are as follows: The first is a portable transmission microscope which is able to correct for artificially induced aberrations using adaptive optics (AO). The specimens and the method of introducing aberrations into the optical system can be altered to simulate the performance of AO-correction in both astronomical and biological imaging. We present the design and construction of the system alongside before-and-after AO-correction images for simulated astronomical and biological images. The second instrument is a miniature endoscope camera sensor we re-purposed for use as a quantitative beam analysis probe using a custom high dynamic range (HDR) imaging and reconstruction procedure. This allowed us to produce quantitative flux maps of the illumination beam intensity profile within several operational fluorescence microscope systems. The third and final project in this thesis was concerned with an adaptive modification to the light sheet illumination beam used in light sheet microscopy, specifically for a single plane illumination microscope (SPIM), embracing the trade-off between the thickness of the light sheet and its extent across the detection field-of-view. The focal region of the beam was made as small as possible and then matched to the shape of curved features within a biological specimen by using a spatial light modulator (SLM) to alter the light sheet focal length throughout the vertical span of the sheet. We used the HDR beam profiling camera probe mentioned earlier to assess the focal shape and quality of the beam. The resulting illumination beam may in the future be used in a modified SPIM system to produce fluorescence microscope images with enhanced optical sectioning of specific curved features

Bolometers

Infrared Detectors and technologies are very important for a wide range of applications, not only for Military but also for various civilian applications. Comparatively fast bolometers can provide large quantities of low cost devices opening up a new era in infrared technologies. This book deals with various aspects of bolometer developments. It covers bolometer material aspects, different types of bolometers, performance limitations, applications and future trends. The chapters in this book will be useful for senior researchers as well as beginning graduate students

Organic Photodiodes and Their Optoelectronic Applications

Recently, organic photodiodes (OPDs) have been acknowledged as a next-generation device for photovoltaic and image sensor applications due to their advantages of large area process, light weight, mechanical flexibility, and excellent photoresponse. This dissertation targets for the development and understanding of high performance organic photodiodes for their medical and industrial applications for the next-generation. As the first research focus, A dielectric / metal / dielectric (DMD) transparent electrode is proposed for the top-illumination OPDs. The fabricated DMD transparent electrode showed the maximum optical transmittance of 85.7 % with sheet resistance of 6.2 ohm/sq. In the second part of the thesis, a development of novel transfer process which enables the dark current suppression for the inverted OPD devices will be discussed. Through the effort, we demonstrated OPD with high D* of 4.82 x 10^12 Jones at reverse bias of 1.5 V with dark current density (Jdark) of 7.7 nA/cm2 and external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 60 %. Additionally in the third part, we investigate a high performance low-bandgap polymer OPD with broadband spectrum. By utilizing the novel transfer process to introduce charge blocking layers, significant suppression of the dark current is achieved while high EQE of the device is preserved. A low Jdark of 5 nA/cm2 at reverse bias of 0.5 V was achieved resulting in the highest D* of 1.5 x 10^13 Jones. To investigate the benefit for the various OPD applications, we developed a novel 3D printing technique to fabricate OPD on hemispherical concave substrate. The techniques allowed the direct patterning of the OPD devices on hemispherical substrates without excessive strain or deformation. Lastly, a simulation of the OPD stacked a-ITZO TFT active pixel sensor (APS) pixel with external transimpedance amplifier (TIA) readout circuit was performed.PHDElectrical & Computer Eng PhDUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137168/1/hyunskim_1.pd