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Improved Picture Quality Technologies Support High-Speed CMOS Sensors
Ultrahigh-Speed High Picture Quality CMOS
Sensors Using Column-Parallel A/D Conversion |
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Ultrahigh-speed imaging using column-parallel A/D conversion |
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High picture quality using
a column-parallel digital
CDS*1 technique |
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*1: CDS: Correlated double sampling |
Photograph 1 180 frame/s Sample Image
Photograph 2 Comparison of 45 frame/s with 180 frame/s Images
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CMOS sensors are now widely used in
cellular phones and other mobile devices,
and as a result, sales of these devices have
been increasing rapidly. Furthermore,
demand for CMOS sensors has been increasing
in fields that require high-speed
imaging functions, such as digital single-lens
reflex cameras.
While CMOS sensor advantages over
CCD include lower power consumption
and higher speed, their main strength is
in the possibilities for system integration,
since analog and digital circuits can be
integrated on the same chip. CMOS sensor
can achieve high-speed characteristics
that could not be achieved with CCD technology
and can provide superb image
quality that surpasses that of CCDs by
taking advantage of these characteristics.
Sony has now implemented a CMOS sensor
that achieves both high-speed image
readout and improved image quality by
taking advantage of these CMOS sensor
characteristics and integrating column-parallel
A/D converters on the same chip.
This CMOS sensor can read out 2.8M-pixel
images at the speed of 180 frame/s.
Furthermore, this device achieves noise
levels comparable to those of CCD image
sensors at the same time as providing
this high-speed readout.
This article presents the high-speed imaging
technology based on column-parallel
A/D conversion and the noise reduction
technology used in this device. |
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Sony Corporation Global Headquarters
The Column-Parallel A/D Conversion Technique
Vol.47