Paper
24 April 2002 Figure-of-merit for CMOS imagers
Chi-Shao Lin, Frank Mau-Chung Chang, Bimal P. Mathur, David L. Standley
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
Imagers designed for different system applications may comply with different requirements. Performance can be optimized only with an appropriate metric. A CMOS imager 'figure-of-merit (FOM)' for such a purpose is presented in this paper. It evaluates a CMOS imager from three performance categories: spatial resolution, sensing speed, and dynamic range. The sensing speed performance index (SP) is obtained by analyzing the imager signal-to-noise ratio versus exposure level. A modulation transfer function normalized to a 35 mm film standard assuming an identical field-of-view is introduced as the spatial resolution performance index (MTF35e_Avg), regardless of image sensor size. The dynamic range performance index, DR, is defined as ratio of the maximum signal level the imager is able to capture to its noise level. The tradeoffs among SP, MTF35e_Avg, and DR of a CMOS imager are quantitatively analyzed, and its FOM is found to be FOM equals DR X SP X (MTF35e_Avg)2. This paper also gives examples of optimized imager design using the proposed FOM.
© (2002) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Chi-Shao Lin, Frank Mau-Chung Chang, Bimal P. Mathur, and David L. Standley "Figure-of-merit for CMOS imagers", Proc. SPIE 4669, Sensors and Camera Systems for Scientific, Industrial, and Digital Photography Applications III, (24 April 2002); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.463436
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Cited by 1 scholarly publication.
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KEYWORDS
Imaging systems

Modulation transfer functions

Signal to noise ratio

Surface plasmons

Photodiodes

Capacitance

Spatial resolution

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