A 1/4-inch 330 K square pixel progressive scan CMOS active pixel image sensor

In this paper, three pixel structures have been studied as candidates to realize high density CMOS active pixel sensors. A novel cell structure, the "I-shaped" cell, in which the active regions are formed along a straight line, has been proposed for high-packing density devices. The "I-shaped" cells can realize minimum cell area of 16F/sup 2/, 14F/sup 2/, and 14F/sup 2/ (F: design rule) for three-transistor-type, two-transistor-type, and one-transistor-type pixels, respectively. A 1/4-inch format progressive scan CMOS active pixel sensor with 640 (H)/spl times/480 (V) pixels has been fabricated using a 0.6-/spl mu/m CMOS process. The sensor operates with 5.0 V single power supply, and power consumption is below 30 mW.