Image sensor

Image sensor

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A CCD image sensor on a flexible circuit board

Image sensor on the motherboard of a Nikon Coolpix L2 6MP

An image sensor is a device that converts an optical image to an electric signal. It is used mostly in digital cameras and other imaging devices. Early sensors were video camera tubes but a modern one is typically a charge-coupled device (CCD) or a complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) active-pixel sensor.

[edit] CCD vs CMOS

Today, most digital still cameras use either a CCD image sensor or a CMOS sensor. Both types of sensor accomplish the same task of capturing light and converting it into electrical signals.

A CCD is an analog device. When light strikes the chip it is held as a small electrical charge in each photo sensor. The charges are converted to voltage one pixel at a time as they are read from the chip. Additional circuitry in the camera converts the voltage into digital information.

A CMOS chip is a type of active pixel sensor made using the CMOS semiconductor process. Extra circuitry next to each photo sensor converts the light energy to a voltage. Additional circuitry on the chip may be included to convert the voltage to digital data.

Neither technology has a clear advantage in image quality. CMOS can potentially be implemented with fewer components, use less power and/or provide faster readout than CCDs. CCD is a more mature technology and is in most respects the equal of CMOS.^[1][2] CMOS sensors are less expensive than the CCD sensors when it comes to manufacturing.

Recently, however a newer architecture has been developed which can benefit from the advantages of CCDs while retaining the features of CMOS chips. These hybrid CCD/CMOS devices, currently being sold under the name "sCMOS", are comprised of CMOS Readout Integrated Circuits (ROICs) that are bump bonded to a CCD imaging substrate --- a technology that was developed for infrared focal plane arrays and now adapted to silicon-based detector technology.^[3]

[edit] Performance

An infrared-blocking filter removed from a Canon EOS 350D dSLR

There are many parameters that can be used to evaluate the performance of an image sensor, including its dynamic range, its signal-to-noise ratio, its low-light sensitivity, etc. For sensors of comparable types, the signal-to-noise ratio and dynamic range improve as the size increases.

[edit] Color sensors

There are several main types of color image sensors, differing by the means of the color separation mechanism:

• Bayer sensor, low-cost and most common, using a color filter array that passes red, green, or blue light to selected pixel sensors, forming interlaced grids sensitive to red, green, and blue – the missing color samples are interpolated using a demosaicing algorithm. In order to avoid interpolated color information techniques like Color co-site sampling use a piezo mechanism to shift the color sensor in pixel steps. The Bayer sensors also include backside illuminated sensors, where the light enters the sensitive silicon from the opposite side of where the transistors and metal wires are, such that the metal connections on the devices side are not an obstacle for the light, and the efficiency is higher.^[3][4]

• Foveon X3 sensor, using an array of layered pixel sensors, separating light via the inherent wavelength-dependent absorption property of silicon, such that every location senses all three color channels.

• 3CCD, using three discrete image sensors, with the color separation done by a dichroic prism. Considered the best quality, and generally more expensive than single-CCD sensors.

[edit] Table of sensors commercially used in digital cameras

Width	Height	Aspect ratio	Actual pixel count	Megapixels	Camera examples
320	240		76,800	0.01	Steven Sasson Prototype (1975)
640	480		307,200	0.3	Apple QuickTake 100 (1994)
832	608		505,856	0.5	Canon Powershot 600 (1996)
1,024	768		786,432	0.8	Olympus D-300L (1996)
1,280	960		1,228,800	1.3	Fujifilm DS-300 (1997)
1,280	1,024	5:4	1,310,720	1.3	Fujifilm MX-700 / Leica Digilux (1998), Fujifilm MX-1700 (1999) / Leica Digilux Zoom (2000)
1,600	1,200		1,920,000	2	Nikon Coolpix 950
2,012	1,324		2,663,888	2.74	Nikon D1
2,048	1,536		3,145,728	3	Canon PowerShot A75, Nikon Coolpix 995
2,272	1,704		3,871,488	4	Olympus Stylus 410, Contax i4R (although CCD is actually square 2,272x2,272)
2,464	1,648		4,060,672	4.1	Canon 1D
2,640	1,760		4,646,400 × 3	4.7 × 3 (14.1 MP)	Sigma SD14, Sigma DP1 (3 layers of pixels, 4.7 MP per layer, in Foveon X3 sensor)
2,560	1,920		4,915,200	5	Olympus E-1, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-F707
2,816	2,112		5,947,392	6	Olympus Stylus 600 Digital
3,008	2,000		6,016,000	6	Nikon D40, D50, D70, D70s, Pentax K100D
3,072	2,048		6,291,456	6.3	Canon 300D, Canon 10D
3,072	2,304		7,077,888	7	Olympus FE-210, Canon PowerShot A620
3,456	2,304		7,962,624	8	Canon 350D
3,264	2,448		7,990,272	8	Olympus E-500, Olympus SP-350, Canon PowerShot A720 IS
3,504	2,336		8,185,344	8.2	Canon 30D, Canon 1D II, Canon 1D II N
3,520	2,344		8,250,880	8.25	Canon 20D
3,648	2,736		9,980,928	10	Olympus E-410, Olympus E-510, Panasonic FZ50
3,872	2,592		10,036,224	10	Nikon D40x, Nikon D60, Nikon D3000, Nikon D200, Nikon D80, Pentax K10D, Sony Alpha A100
3,888	2,592		10,077,696	10.1	Canon 400D, Canon 40D
4,064	2,704		10,989,056	11	Canon 1Ds
4,000	3,000		12,000,000	12	Canon Powershot G9, Fujifilm FinePix F100fd
4,032	3,024		12,192,768	12.3	Olympus PEN E-P1
4,256	2,832		12,052,992	12.1	Nikon D3, Nikon D3S, Nikon D700
4,272	2,848		12,166,656	12.2	Canon 450D
4,288	2,848		12,212,224	12.2	Nikon D2Xs/D2X, Nikon D300, Nikon D90, Nikon D5000
4,368	2,912		12,719,616	12.7	Canon 5D
4,672	3,104		14,501,888	14.5	Pentax K20D
4,992	3,328		16,613,376	16.6	Canon 1Ds II
5,270	3,516		18,529,320	18.5	Leica M9
5,616	3,744		21,026,304	21.0	Canon 1Ds III, Canon 5D Mark II
6,048	4,032		24,385,536	24.4	Sony α 850, Sony α 900, Nikon D3X
7,500	5,000		37,500,000	37.5	Leica S2
7,212	5,142		39,031,344	39.0	Hasselblad H3DII-39
8,176	6,132		50,135,232	50.1	Hasselblad H3DII-50
8,956	6,708		60,076,848	60.1	Hasselblad H4D-60
8,984	6,732		60,480,288	60.5	Phase One P65+

[edit] Specialty sensors

Special sensors are used for various applications such as thermal imaging, creation of multi-spectral images, gamma cameras, sensor arrays for x-rays, and other highly sensitive arrays for astronomy.

[edit] See also

• Video camera tube
• Semiconductor detector
• Contact image sensor
• Image sensor format, the sizes and shapes of common image sensors
• Color filter array, mosaic of tiny color filters over color image sensors
• Sensitometry, the scientific study of light-sensitive materials

[edit] References

1. ^ CCD vs CMOS from Photonics Spectra 2001
2. ^ Sensors By Vincent Bockaert
3. ^ ^{a b} [1]
4. ^ OmniVision on Backside-illuminated CMOS Sensors

[edit] External links

• Digital Camera Sensor Performance Summary by Roger Clark.

• Image Sensors Europe 2010 Conference by IntertechPira.
• Custom Image sensors