High-speed charge transfer pinned-photodiode for a CMOS time-of-flight range image sensor

Hiroaki Takeshita; Tomonari Sawada; Tetsuya Iida; Keita Yasutomi; Shoji Kawahito

doi:10.1117/12.846277

25 January 2010 High-speed charge transfer pinned-photodiode for a CMOS time-of-flight range image sensor

Hiroaki Takeshita, Tomonari Sawada, Tetsuya Iida, Keita Yasutomi, Shoji Kawahito

Proceedings Volume 7536, Sensors, Cameras, and Systems for Industrial/Scientific Applications XI; 75360R (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.846277
Event: IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging, 2010, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

This paper presents a structure and method of range calculation for CMOS time-of-flight(TOF) range image sensors using pinned photodiodes. In the proposed method, a LED light with short pulse width and small duty ratio irradiates the objects and a back-reflected light is received by the CMOS TOF range imager.Each pixel has a pinned photodiode optimized for high speed charge transfer and unwanted charge draining. In TOF range image sensors, high speed charge transfer from the light receiving part to a charge accumulator is essential.It was found that the fastest charge transfer can be realized when the lateral electric field along the axis of charge transfer is constant and this conditon is met when the shape of the diode exactly follows the relationship between the fully-depleted potential and width. A TOF range imager prototype is designed and implemented with 0.18um CMOS image sensor technology with pinned photodiode 4transistor(T) pixels. The measurement results show that the charge transfer time is a few ns from the pinned photodiode to a charge accumulator.

Citation Download Citation

Hiroaki Takeshita, Tomonari Sawada, Tetsuya Iida, Keita Yasutomi, and Shoji Kawahito "High-speed charge transfer pinned-photodiode for a CMOS time-of-flight range image sensor", Proc. SPIE 7536, Sensors, Cameras, and Systems for Industrial/Scientific Applications XI, 75360R (25 January 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.846277

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