PHOTODETECTORS FOR OPTICAL SIGNAL PROCESSING

WE PROPOSE TO INVESTIGATE, DEVELOP, AND HAVE FABRICATED A HIGH-SPEED IMAGING SENSOR BASED ON A CUSTOM MOS INTEGRATED CIRCUIT. THE SENSOR WILL HAVE ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTERS ON-CHIP TO PRODUCE HIGH SPEED DIGITAL VIDEO DATA FOR TRANSMISSION OFF-CHIP. THIS SENSOR WILL BE AN EXTENSION OF OUR CURRENT DEVELOPMENT OF A 256X256 PIXEL SENSOR THAT OPERATES AT FRAME RATES OF 2000 FRAMES/SECOND. OUR APPROACH WILL UTILIZE STANDARD READILY AVAILABLE CMOS BULK INTEGRATED CIRCUIT TECHNOLOGY SO PRODUCTS ARISING FROM THIS R&D CAN BE FABRICATED RELIABLY AND ECONOMICALLY BY A NUMBER OF VENDORS. WE HAVE DEMONSTRATED THE FEASIBILITY OF FABRICATING PHOTOSENSOR ARRAYS USING STANDARD CMOS PROCESSES. ON-CHIP CIRCUITS PROVIDE SCANNING, LOGARITHMIC COMPRESSION (OPTICAL), AMPLIFICATION, SAMPLE-AND-HOLD, MULTIPLEXING, AND ROW AND COLUMN DECODING. WE HAVE DEMONSTRATED CUSTOM CMOS IMAGERS IN OUR LABORATORY THAT OPERATE AT FRAME RATES IN EXCESS OF 1000 FRAMES/SECOND. WE PRESENTLY HAVE A DESIGN JUST BACK FROM FABRICATION THAT IS PROJECTED TO OPERATE IN EXCESS OF 2000 FRAMES/SECOND. THE DEVELOPMENT OF A HIGH-SPEED VIDEO SENSOR WITH INTEGRATED A/D CONVERTERS IS A NATURAL EXTENSION OF THIS PRIOR WORK AND LEADS DIRECTLY TO AN INEXPENSIVE PRODUCT WITH WIDE APPLICABILITY IN COMMERCIAL, ACADEMIC, AND MILITARY MARKETS.