Exploring the 3D integration technology for CMOS image sensors

3D fabrication technologies allow microelectronic circuits such as processors or memories to achieve very high integration densities. These technologies applied to CMOS image sensors, make possible the implementation of specific processing architectures without damaging key parameters of CMOS imagers. This paper illustrates these benefits with an implementation of a 3D image sensor integrating at the pixel level a low noise circuit coupled to an analog to digital converter.