Applications, Design, and Testing of CMOS and CCD Sensors and Camera Systems

This course is intended for scientists, engineers, and hardware managers that are involved with the selection, specification, and design of CMOS/CCD camera systems for a variety of applications. In recent years CMOS sensors have been increasingly displacing CCD sensors as the preferred and more useful in many imaging applications (with "sensor" defined as the light-sensing focal plane chip). In this course the advantages and disadvantages of CCDs and CMOS sensor technologies and their fundamental engineering description are covered. The role of CMOS sensors in providing highly integrated and flexible digital camera systems is highlighted. The basics of visible sensor camera design and imaging performance are also described in detail, including metrics such as signal to noise ratio (SNR), modulation transfer function (MTF), and optical Q. The underlying principles are illustrated with design synthesis examples that span the range of multispectral satellite imaging to high-definition television (HDTV) color scanning. Requirements flow-down, camera and sensor specification, and corresponding verification by testing are also covered. Finally the future trends for CMOS sensor and camera technologies are discussed.

The course can help participants to:

• Understand the basics of CCD sensor design and operation
• Understand the basics of CMOS sensor design and operation
• Compare primary architecture differences for CMOS and CCD sensor technologies
• Analyze different CMOS imager pixel types, including their advantages and disadvantages, and compare their SNR performance
• Overview trends and improvements in CMOS circuit techniques and fabrication process changes and advancements
• Describe and characterize CMOS sensor performance metrics: quantum efficiency, noise dark current, full well, modulation transfer function (MTF), radiation hardness
• Describe the camera system requirements flowdown process
• Understand camera design basics and camera signal and noise optimization
• Review image chain cascading of component modulation transfer functions (MTFs) (optics, pixel, diffusion, motion, etc.)
• Visualize MTF and SNR trades and aliasing impact directly using processed images
• Illustrate imaging system design synthesis with two detailed but very different examples: multispectral satellite imager and an HDTV telecine
• Outline typical visible imager detailed hardware design specifications
• Review CMOS/CCD experimental characterization methods and associated test hardware used for requirements verification
• Understand the history of color imaging, including color television standards and the segue to digital television standards
• Review basics of HDTV and the MPEG-2 compression algorithm
• Describe the design and signal processing for single-chip color filter array approaches
• Summarize digital still and video camera formats
• Understand CMOS/CCD pixel and camera scaling relationships and future trends

UCLA Extension has presented a highly successful five-day version of this short course since 1994. This course—abstracted from the original— emphasizes the application, utilization, and testing of CMOS/CCD sensors for a wide variety of imaging applications.

Course Materials

The text, CMOS/CCD Sensor and Camera Systems, Second Edition, Gerald C. Holst and Terrence S. Lomheim (JCD Publishing and SPIE Press, 2011), and lecture notes are distributed on the first day of the course. The notes are for participants only and are not otherwise available for sale or unauthorized distribution.

Daily Schedule

Thursday

CMOS and CCD Sensors: Basic Description, Comparisons, Fundamental Performance Metrics

Introduction to the basics of CCD and CMOS sensors; survey of CMOS pixel architectures (3T, 4T, 5T, etc.); CMOS imager architectures and the integration of on-chip analog-to-digital conversion; monolithic and hybrid architectures; front-side versus back-side illuminated CMOS sensors; power dissipation and performance metrics, including quantum efficiency and fill factor, analog signal chain noise, frame rates and line rates, time-delay and integration, dark current, linearity, modulation transfer function, and radiation-hardness/tolerance.

Signal-to-Noise, MTF, Image Quality, Constraints, Detailed Examples

Derivation of single pixel signal and noise equations; definition of system noise (photons-in to bits-out); review of optical system scaling and sizing, modulation transfer function (MTF) basics: optical system, sensor pixel aperture, diffusion, temporal aperture, and scan velocity mismatch components; sampling and aliasing effects, including visual examples; image quality based on the combined use of MTF and signal-to-noise ratio; imaging figures-of-merit; flowdown of sensor system requirements to CMOS/CCD specifications; imaging sensor constraints and design trades; example of configuring a visible/near IR multispectral CMOS/CCD image sensor based on a given set of system constraints; example of configuring an HDTV Telecine film scanning system, including the tri-color visible image sensor.

Friday

Specifying and Measuring CMOS/CCD Image Sensors

Specification of performance parameters for visible CMOS/CCD sensors; methods for experimentally characterizing CMOS/CCD sensors, including quantum efficiency, response uniformity, nonlinearity, color-dependent MTF using spot scan and tilted knife-edge techniques; lab optical system constraints and choices; observation of spatial beat patterns; verification of wavelength-dependent effects; test plans and test equipment.

Color Imaging Using CMOS/CCD Image Sensors: Background and Fundamentals

NTSC color and colorimetry standards; how to use the CIE chromaticity diagram; definition of luminance and chrominance (hue and saturation) signals; brief historical review of TV signal basics and analog color encoding methods.

Color Imaging Using CMOS/CCD Sensors: Broadcast Applications, Color Filter Arrays, Non-Broadcast Color Imaging, HDTV

Color camera processing for three- and two-chip color cameras--analog and digital; stripe and mosaic color filter arrays (CFAs); complementary and primary color filter arrays; CFA-implications for camera design and signal processing-dependence on CFA pattern; single chip CFA cameras--digital and analog; color pixel interpolation; CFA patterns for frequency interleaving of chrominance signals; multi-color commercial, land-management, and biomedical applications; multispectral and hyperspectral imaging approaches and applications. HDTV standards and implications; review of HDTV development; MPEG-2 compression standard; imaging chips for HDTV applications.

CMOS/CCD Commercial Imager Formats and Trends

Digital still and video formats, optical mount and sensor dimensions, chroma sampling terminology, space-bandwidth product, camera and pixel scaling relationships, technology drivers, trends, yield and relative cost.

Sponsor Background:

The courses range from two-to-five days in length and attract participants from across the United States and Internationally. Subject areas include electrical, materials, and mechanical engineering as well as computer and communications engineering and technical management. Nearly 100 courses per year are held on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. Many of them are also presented under contract at company locations across the country and abroad.

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