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

CMOS active pixel sensors (APS) have attracted special attention in recent years because of monolithic integration of controlling, driving and signal processing circuitry within a single sensor chip. However, a large pixel area is required for implementing row select, charge reset and amplification elements in a pixel. Further pixel size shrinkage is necessary, especially for applications like consumer-use digital still photography. Reduced cell size is reported for the television, but the device operates only in the interlace scan mode. This consumer-use 1/4 inch 640(H)x480(V) pixel active pixel sensor has a 5.6x5.6/spl mu/m/sup 2/ pixel. The imager operates with a 5.0V single power supply and less than 30mW dissipation. The sensor uses 0.6/spl mu/m, double poly-silicon, triple-metal CMOS process technology.