Prediction of CMOS APS design enabling maximum photoresponse for scalable CMOS technologies

TLDR: Comparison of the theoretically predicted and modeled results and the results obtained from the measurements of an actual pixel array gives excellent agreement and verifies the presented scaling-effect approximation and validates the usefulness of the model for design optimization in scalable CMOS technologies.

Abstract: This brief represents the CMOS active pixel sensor (APS) photoresponse model use for maximum pixel photosignal prediction in scalable CMOS technologies. We have proposed a simple approximation determining the technology-scaling effect on the overall device photoresponse. Based on the above approximation and the data obtained from the CMOS 0.5 /spl mu/m process thorough investigation we have theoretically predicted, designed, measured and compared the optimal (in the output photosignal sense) pixel in a more advanced, CMOS 0.35 /spl mu/m technology. Comparison of both, our theoretically predicted and modeled results and the results obtained from the measurements of an actual pixel array gives excellent agreement. It verifies the presented scaling-effect approximation and validates the usefulness of our model for design optimization in scalable CMOS technologies.