Extension of the Dynamic Range in the CMOS Active Pixel Sensor Using a Stacked Photodiode and Feedback Structure

Abstract

This paper presents an extension of the dynamic range in a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) active pixel sensor (APS) using a stacked photodiode and feedback structure. The proposed APS is composed of two additional MOSFETs and stacked P+/N-well/P-sub photodiodes as compared with a conventional APS. Using the proposed technique, the sensor can improve the spectral response and dynamic range. The spectral response is improved using an additional stacked P+/N-well photodiode, and the dynamic range is increased using the feedback structure. Although the size of the pixel is slightly larger than that of a conventional three-transistor APS, control of the dynamic range is much easier than that of the conventional methods using the feedback structure. The simulation and measurement results for the proposed APS demonstrate a wide dynamic range feature. The maximum dynamic range of the proposed sensor is greater than 103 dB. The designed circuit is fabricated by the <TEX>$0.35-{\mu}m$</TEX> 2-poly 4-metal standard CMOS process, and its characteristics are evaluated.