Integrated polarization-analyzing CMOS image sensor for detecting incoming light ray direction

A CMOS image sensor with an integrated wire grid polarizer to sense the polarization of light is presented. The chip consists of an array of 128 by 128 pixels, it occupies an area of 5×4 mm
²
and it has been designed and fabricated in a CMOS 180nm process. The integrated grid polarizer is oriented in various directions to compute the Stokes parameters which can be used to determine the degree of polarization of the incoming light ray.