A Time-to-first Spike CMOS Imager

Abstract

A novel time-to-first-spike CMOS imager is presented, in which the timing of a single spike from each pixel encodes the illuminance of each pixel. This temporal representation of illuminance can widen the image sensor dynamic range to over 100dB. To reduce power consumption, an asynchronous address-event readout technique is incorporated. The imager essentially implements a pixel-level A/D conversion and benefits from the continued process scaling to deep submicron levels. Results are shown from a 32 x 32 pixel imager fabricated in the 0.5μm AMI process with measured dynamic range of 104dB in one image. A test chip with one pixel and digital control logic has been fabricated through MOSIS using the TSMC 0.18μm standard digital CMOS process. It has demonstrated the expected functionalities. A modified architecture is also proposed for a larger imager array.

Department(s)

Electrical and Computer Engineering

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0271-4310

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2025 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

06 Sep 2004

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