Design and Characterization of CMOS/SOI Image Sensors

The design, operation, and characterization of CMOS imagers implemented using: 1) "regular" CMOS wafers with a 0.5-mum CMOS analog process; 2) "regular" CMOS wafers with a 0.35-mum CMOS analog process; and 3) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers in conjunction with a 0.35-mum CMOS analog process, are discussed in this paper. The performances of the studied imagers are compared in terms of quantum efficiency, dark current, and optical bandwidth. It is found that there is strong dependence of quantum efficiency of the photodiodes on the architecture of the image sensor. The results of this paper are useful for designing and modeling CMOS/SOI image sensors