Simulation of the Photodetection in the PPS CMOS Sensors

Abstract

The paper contains an analysis and simulation of passive pixel based sensors. The passive pixel CMOS image acquisition sensor (PPS) is the key part of a visible image capture systems. The PPS is a complex circuit composed by an optical part and an electrical part, both analog and digital. The goal of this paper is to simulate the functionality of the photodetection process that happens in the PPS sensor. The photodetector is responsible with the conversion from photons to electrical charges and then into current. In the optical part, the sensor is analyzed by a spectral image processing algorithm which uses as input data: the lenses array transmittance, the red, green and blue filters and the quantum efficiency of the PPS. In the electrical part of simulation, the program is computing the signal to noise ratio of the sensor taking into account the photon shot, white and fixed pattern noises. Our basic analysis is based on camera equation to which we add the noises.