Low FPN high gain capacitive transimpedance amplifier for low noise CMOS image sensors

In this paper we introduce a low fixed pattern noise (LFPN) capacitive transimpedance amplifier (CTIA) for active pixel CMOS image sensors (APS) with high switchable gain and low read noise. The LFPN CTIA APS uses a switched capacitor voltage divider feedback circuit to achieve high sensitivity, low gain FPN, and low read noise. This paper discusses the operation of the LFPN CTIA APS, and presents a theoretical analysis of its gain FPN and read noise. We do not analyze the effect of 1/f noise, since it is typically much smaller than the thermal and shot noise effects. Monte Carlo simulation of gain FPN and SPICE simulation of read noise are also presented. For a 0.35 mum CMOS LFPN CTIA at room temperature and an output data rate of 16Mpixel/sec, we show that the pixel amplifier gain FPN is less than 0.0064, where FPN is defined as the ratio of standard deviation to mean. The read noise and dynamic range are less than 3 electrons RMS and greater than 90dB respectively. We find that theory and simulated results match closely.