WORKSHOP PAPER
A 640x480 Resolution 326,000fps Continuous-Mode Ultra-High Speed Global-Shutter CMOS BSI Imager with Exceptional Light Sensitivity
Jean-Luc Bacq1, Mandar Thite1, Roeland Vandebriel1, Swaraj Bandhu Mahato1, Philippe Coppejans1, Jonathan Borremans1, Linkun Wu1, Kuba Rączkowski1, Ismail Cevik1, Vasyl Motsnyi1, Luc Haspeslagh1, Andreas Suess1, Brandon Flon2, Dan Jantzen2, Phil Jantzen2, Celso Cavaco1, Annachiara Spagnolo1
1imec, Heverlee, Belgium
2Pharsighted, USA

Abstract

This paper presents an ultra-high speed monolithic global-shutter CMOS image sensor offering motion capture at 326,000 FPS in continuous-mode operation with 640x480 pixel resolution. The high speed is achieved by a combination of pixel technology and circuit techniques. The highly sensitive pixel has 52μm pitch and consists of a fully depleted substrate for fast photocarrier transport. The in-pixel circuitry includes analog storage for pipelined readout and analog CDS for fast readout and low noise. The sensor achieves an equivalent row time of 6.4ns by having separate top and bottom readout with multiple parallel ADCs per column. Separate row drivers on the left and the right guarantee the global shutter accuracy required by the minimum exposure time of 59ns. The dynamic range is optimized by on-chip reduction of the FPN and by lossless data compression. The sensor throughput is as high as 100 Gpix/sec and is delivered off-chip via 128 CML channels running at 6.6 Gbps each. The sensor is fabricated in 130nm monolithic CIS process with BSI postprocessing and is currently in series production.
Year: 2025
Workshop: IISW
URL: https://doi.org/10.60928/jdd0-27ia
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Keywords

ultra-high speed, global-shutter, CMOS, image sensor, motion capture, continuous-mode, pixel resolution, light sensitivity, pipelined readout, low noise, analog CDS, row time, global shutter accuracy, dynamic range, lossless data compression, sensor throughput, monolithic CIS process, BSI postprocessing, series production,

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