Date of Award

2007

Degree Type

Thesis Project

Degree Name

Master of Engineering (MEng)

Department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

First Advisor

Fei Yuan

Abstract

A CMOS image sensor consists of a light sensing region that converts photonic energy to an electrical signal and a peripheral circuitry that performs signal conditioning and post-processing. This project investgates the principle and design of CMOS active image sensors. The basic concepts and principle of CMOS image sensors are investigated. The advantages of CMOS image sensors over charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensors are presented. Both passive pixel sensors (PPS) and acive pixel sensors (APS) are examined in detail. The noise of CMOS image sensors is investigated and correlated double sampling (CDS) techniques are examined. The design of APS arrays, CDS circuits and 8-bit analog to-digital converters in TSMC-0.18μm 1.8V CMOS technology is presented. The simulation results and layout of the designed CMOS image sensor are presented.