On evolution of CMOS image sensors

CMOS Image Sensors have become the principal technology in majority of digital cameras. They started replacing the film and Charge Coupled Devices in the last decade with the promise of lower cost, lower power requirement, higher integration and the potential of focal plane processing. However, the principal factor behind their success has been the ability to utilise the shrinkage in CMOS technology to make smaller pixels, and thereby have more resolution without increasing the cost. With the market of image sensors exploding courtesy their inte- gration with communication and computation devices, technology developers improved the CMOS processes to have better optical performance. Nevertheless, the promises of focal plane processing as well as on-chip integration have not been fulfilled. The market is still being pushed by the desire of having higher number of pixels and better image quality, however, differentiation is being difficult for any image sensor manufacturer. In the paper, we will explore potential disruptive growth directions for CMOS Image sensors and ways to achieve the same

Lensfree computational microscopy tools for cell and tissue imaging at the point-of-care and in low-resource settings.

The recent revolution in digital technologies and information processing methods present important opportunities to transform the way optical imaging is performed, particularly toward improving the throughput of microscopes while at the same time reducing their relative cost and complexity. Lensfree computational microscopy is rapidly emerging toward this end, and by discarding lenses and other bulky optical components of conventional imaging systems, and relying on digital computation instead, it can achieve both reflection and transmission mode microscopy over a large field-of-view within compact, cost-effective and mechanically robust architectures. Such high throughput and miniaturized imaging devices can provide a complementary toolset for telemedicine applications and point-of-care diagnostics by facilitating complex and critical tasks such as cytometry and microscopic analysis of e.g., blood smears, Pap tests and tissue samples. In this article, the basics of these lensfree microscopy modalities will be reviewed, and their clinically relevant applications will be discussed

Advances on CMOS image sensors

This paper offers an introduction to the technological advances of image sensors designed using complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) processes along the last decades. We review some of those technological advances and examine potential disruptive growth directions for CMOS image sensors and proposed ways to achieve them. Those advances include breakthroughs on image quality such as resolution, capture speed, light sensitivity and color detection and advances on the computational imaging. The current trend is to push the innovation efforts even further as the market requires higher resolution, higher speed, lower power consumption and, mainly, lower cost sensors. Although CMOS image sensors are currently used in several different applications from consumer to defense to medical diagnosis, product differentiation is becoming both a requirement and a difficult goal for any image sensor manufacturer. The unique properties of CMOS process allows the integration of several signal processing techniques and are driving the impressive advancement of the computational imaging. With this paper, we offer a very comprehensive review of methods, techniques, designs and fabrication of CMOS image sensors that have impacted or might will impact the images sensor applications and markets

2D Detectors for Particle Physics and for Imaging Applications

The demands on detectors for particle detection as well as for medical and astronomical X-ray imaging are continuously pushing the development of novel pixel detectors. The state of the art in pixel detector technology to date are hybrid pixel detectors in which sensor and read-out integrated circuits are processed on different substrates and connected via high density interconnect structures. While these detectors are technologically mastered such that large scale particle detectors can be and are being built, the demands for improved performance for the next generation particle detectors ask for the development of monolithic or semi-monolithic approaches. Given the fact that the demands for medical imaging are different in some key aspects, developments for these applications, which started as particle physics spin-off, are becomming rather independent. New approaches are leading to novel signal processing concepts and interconnect technologies to satisfy the need for very high dynamic range and large area detectors. The present state in hybrid and (semi-)monolithic pixel detector development and their different approaches for particle physics and imaging application is reviewed

A 25 micron-thin microscope for imaging upconverting nanoparticles with NIR-I and NIR-II illumination.

Rationale: Intraoperative visualization in small surgical cavities and hard-to-access areas are essential requirements for modern, minimally invasive surgeries and demand significant miniaturization. However, current optical imagers require multiple hard-to-miniaturize components including lenses, filters and optical fibers. These components restrict both the form-factor and maneuverability of these imagers, and imagers largely remain stand-alone devices with centimeter-scale dimensions. Methods: We have engineered INSITE (Immunotargeted Nanoparticle Single-Chip Imaging Technology), which integrates the unique optical properties of lanthanide-based alloyed upconverting nanoparticles (aUCNPs) with the time-resolved imaging of a 25-micron thin CMOS-based (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) imager. We have synthesized core/shell aUCNPs of different compositions and imaged their visible emission with INSITE under either NIR-I and NIR-II photoexcitation. We characterized aUCNP imaging with INSITE across both varying aUCNP composition and 980 nm and 1550 nm excitation wavelengths. To demonstrate clinical experimental validity, we also conducted an intratumoral injection into LNCaP prostate tumors in a male nude mouse that was subsequently excised and imaged with INSITE. Results: Under the low illumination fluences compatible with live animal imaging, we measure aUCNP radiative lifetimes of 600 μs - 1.3 ms, which provides strong signal for time-resolved INSITE imaging. Core/shell NaEr0.6Yb0.4F4 aUCNPs show the highest INSITE signal when illuminated at either 980 nm or 1550 nm, with signal from NIR-I excitation about an order of magnitude brighter than from NIR-II excitation. The 55 μm spatial resolution achievable with this approach is demonstrated through imaging of aUCNPs in PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) micro-wells, showing resolution of micrometer-scale targets with single-pixel precision. INSITE imaging of intratumoral NaEr0.8Yb0.2F4 aUCNPs shows a signal-to-background ratio of 9, limited only by photodiode dark current and electronic noise. Conclusion: This work demonstrates INSITE imaging of aUCNPs in tumors, achieving an imaging platform that is thinned to just a 25 μm-thin, planar form-factor, with both NIR-I and NIR-II excitation. Based on a highly paralleled array structure INSITE is scalable, enabling direct coupling with a wide array of surgical and robotic tools for seamless integration with tissue actuation, resection or ablation

Field-portable pixel super-resolution colour microscope.

Based on partially-coherent digital in-line holography, we report a field-portable microscope that can render lensfree colour images over a wide field-of-view of e.g., >20 mm(2). This computational holographic microscope weighs less than 145 grams with dimensions smaller than 17×6×5 cm, making it especially suitable for field settings and point-of-care use. In this lensfree imaging design, we merged a colorization algorithm with a source shifting based multi-height pixel super-resolution technique to mitigate 'rainbow' like colour artefacts that are typical in holographic imaging. This image processing scheme is based on transforming the colour components of an RGB image into YUV colour space, which separates colour information from brightness component of an image. The resolution of our super-resolution colour microscope was characterized using a USAF test chart to confirm sub-micron spatial resolution, even for reconstructions that employ multi-height phase recovery to handle dense and connected objects. To further demonstrate the performance of this colour microscope Papanicolaou (Pap) smears were also successfully imaged. This field-portable and wide-field computational colour microscope could be useful for tele-medicine applications in resource poor settings

CMOS Vision Sensors: Embedding Computer Vision at Imaging Front-Ends

CMOS Image Sensors (CIS) are key for imaging technol-ogies. These chips are conceived for capturing opticalscenes focused on their surface, and for delivering elec-trical images, commonly in digital format. CISs may incor-porate intelligence; however, their smartness basicallyconcerns calibration, error correction and other similartasks. The term CVISs (CMOS VIsion Sensors) definesother class of sensor front-ends which are aimed at per-forming vision tasks right at the focal plane. They havebeen running under names such as computational imagesensors, vision sensors and silicon retinas, among others. CVIS and CISs are similar regarding physical imple-mentation. However, while inputs of both CIS and CVISare images captured by photo-sensors placed at thefocal-plane, CVISs primary outputs may not be imagesbut either image features or even decisions based on thespatial-temporal analysis of the scenes. We may hencestate that CVISs are more “intelligent” than CISs as theyfocus on information instead of on raw data. Actually,CVIS architectures capable of extracting and interpretingthe information contained in images, and prompting reac-tion commands thereof, have been explored for years inacademia, and industrial applications are recently ramp-ing up.One of the challenges of CVISs architects is incorporat-ing computer vision concepts into the design flow. Theendeavor is ambitious because imaging and computervision communities are rather disjoint groups talking dif-ferent languages. The Cellular Nonlinear Network Univer-sal Machine (CNNUM) paradigm, proposed by Profs.Chua and Roska, defined an adequate framework forsuch conciliation as it is particularly well suited for hard-ware-software co-design [1]-[4]. This paper overviewsCVISs chips that were conceived and prototyped at IMSEVision Lab over the past twenty years. Some of them fitthe CNNUM paradigm while others are tangential to it. Allthem employ per-pixel mixed-signal processing circuitryto achieve sensor-processing concurrency in the quest offast operation with reduced energy budget.Junta de Andalucía TIC 2012-2338Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC 2015-66878-C3-1-R y TEC 2015-66878-C3-3-

Radiation damages in CMOS image sensors: testing and hardening challenges brought by deep sub-micrometer CIS processes

This paper presents a summary of the main results we observed after several years of study on irradiated custom imagers manufactured using 0,18 µm CMOS processes dedicated to imaging. These results are compared to irradiated commercial sensor test results provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to enlighten the differences between standard and pinned photodiode behaviors. Several types of energetic particles have been used (gamma rays, X-rays, protons and neutrons) to irradiate the studied devices. Both total ionizing dose (TID) and displacement damage effects are reported. The most sensitive parameter is still the dark current but some quantum eficiency and MOSFET characteristics changes were also observed at higher dose than those of interest for space applications. In all these degradations, the trench isolations play an important role. The consequences on radiation testing for space applications and radiation-hardening-by-design techniques are also discussed