A CMOS image sensor with draining only modulation pixels for fluorescence lifetime imaging

Zhuo Li; Keita Yasutomi; Taishi Takasawa; Shinya Itoh; Shoji Kawahito

doi:10.1117/12.877775

16 February 2011 A CMOS image sensor with draining only modulation pixels for fluorescence lifetime imaging

Zhuo Li, Keita Yasutomi, Taishi Takasawa, Shinya Itoh, Shoji Kawahito

Proceedings Volume 7875, Sensors, Cameras, and Systems for Industrial, Scientific, and Consumer Applications XII; 78750D (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.877775
Event: IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging, 2011, San Francisco Airport, California, United States

Abstract

Fluorescence lifetime imaging is becoming a powerful tool in biology. A charge-domain CMOS Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM) chip using a pinned photo diode (PPD) and the pinned storage diode (PSD) with different depth of potential wells has been previously developed by the authors. However, a transfer gate between PPD and PSD causes charge transfer noise due to traps at the channel surface. This paper presents a time-resolved CMOS image sensor with draining only modulation pixels for fluorescence lifetime imaging, which removes the transfer gate between PPD and PSD. The time windowing is done by draining with a draining gate only, which is attached along the carrier path from PPD to PSD. This allows us to realize a trapping less charge transfer between PPD and PSD, leading to a very low-noise time-resolved signal detection. A video-rate CMOS FLIM chip has been fabricated using 0.18μm standard CMOS pinned diode image sensor process. The pixel consists of a PPD, a PSD, a charge draining gate (TD), a readout transfer gate (TX) between the PSD and the floating diffusion (FD), a reset transistor and a source follower amplifier transistor. The pixel array has 200(Row) x 256(Column) pixels and the pixel pitch is 7.5μm. Fundamental characteristics of the implemented CMOS FLIM chip are measured. The signal intensity of the PSD as a function of the TD gate voltage is also measured. The ratio of the signal for the TD off to the signal for the TD on is 212 : 1.

Citation Download Citation

Zhuo Li, Keita Yasutomi, Taishi Takasawa, Shinya Itoh, and Shoji Kawahito "A CMOS image sensor with draining only modulation pixels for fluorescence lifetime imaging", Proc. SPIE 7875, Sensors, Cameras, and Systems for Industrial, Scientific, and Consumer Applications XII, 78750D (16 February 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.877775

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