CCD sensors rely on specialized fabrication that requires dedicated—and costly—manufacturing processes. In contrast, CMOS image sensors can be made at standard manufacturing facilities that produce 90% of all semiconductor chips, from powerful microprocessors to RAM and ROM memory chips. This standardization results in economies of scale and leads to ongoing process-line improvements. CMOS processes, moreover, enable very large scale integration (VLSI), and this is used by our “active-pixel” architectures to incorporate all necessary camera functions onto one chip. Such integration creates a compact camera system which is more reliable and removes the need for peripheral support chip packaging and assembly, further reducing the cost.

Active-pixel sensor architectures consume much less power—up to 100x less power—than their CCD counterparts. This is a great advantage in battery-dependent portable applications, such as laptop computers, hand-held scanners, and video cellphones. CCD systems, on the other hand, tend to be inherently power hungry. This is because CCDs are essentially capacitive devices, needing external control signals and large clock swings (5–15 volts) to achieve acceptable charge transfer efficiencies. Their off-chip support circuitry dissipates a significant amount of power. CCD systems require numerous power supplies and voltage regulators for operation, whereas active-pixel sensors use a single 5-volt (or 3.3-volt) supply, reducing power-supply inefficiency. A CCD system typically requires 2–5 watts (digital output), compared to 20–50 milliwatts for the same pixel throughput using an active-pixel system. For example, a CMOS digital camera system operating from a NiCd camcorder battery could operate for a week, while a CCD arrangement would drain the battery in a few hours.

Random Access to Pixel Regions of Interest Adds Flexibility

In CMOS active-pixel image sensors, both the photodetector and the readout amplifier are part of each pixel. This allows the integrated charge to be converted into a voltage inside the pixel, which can then be read out over X-Y wires (instead of using a charge domain shift register, as in CCDs). This column and row addressability, similar to common DRAM, allows for window-of-interest readout (windowing), which can be utilized for on-chip electronic pan, tilt, and zoom. Windowing provides much added flexibility in applications that need image compression, motion detection, or target tracking.

No Artifacts, Smear, or Blooming Means Higher-Quality Image

With our active-pixel architectures, the RMS input-referred noise is comparable to very high-end (and expensive) CCDs. Both technologies provide excellent imagery compared with other CMOS image sensors. Our active-pixel architectures use intra-pixel amplification in conjunction with both temporal and fixed-pattern noise suppression circuitry (i.e., correlated double sampling), which produces exceptional imagery in terms of dynamic range (a wide ~75 dB) and noise (a low ~15 e-RMS noise floor), with low fixed-pattern noise (<0.15% sat). Our active-pixel sensors achieve a quantum efficiency (sensitivity) that is comparable to high-end CCDs, but, unlike CCDs, they are not prone to column streaking due to blooming pixels. This is because CCDs rely on charge domain shift registers that can leak charge to adjacent pixels when the CCD register overflows, causing bright lights to "bloom," leading to unwanted streaks in the image. In our active-pixel architectures, the signal charge is converted to a voltage inside the pixel and read out over the column bus, as in a DRAM. Our sensors have built-in anti-blooming protection in each pixel, so that there is no blooming. Smear, caused by charge transfer in a CCD under illumination, is also avoided.

Intra-Pixel Amplification and On-Chip ADC Produce Faster Frame Rates

CMOS active-pixel designs are inherently fast, which is a particular advantage in machine-vision and motion-analysis applications. Active pixels can drive an image array’s column buses at greater speeds than is possible on passive-pixel CMOS sensors or CCDs, and on-chip analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) it eases the driving of high-speed signals off-chip. A separate benefit of on-chip ADCs is the output signal’s low sensitivity to pick-up or crosstalk. This facilitates computer and digital-controller interfacing while adding to the system's robustness.

On-Chip Integrated Circuitry Enables “Smart” Camera Functions

CMOS active-pixel architectures allow signal processing to be integrated on-chip. Beyond the standard camera functions—AGC, auto-exposure control, etc.—many higher-level DSP functions can be realized. These include anti-jitter (image stabilization) for camcorders, image compression (before and after readout), color encoding, computer database interface circuits, multi-resolution imaging, motion tracking for perimeter surveillance (“smart image sensing”), video conferencing, and wireless control.