TECHNOLOGY AND DEVICE SCALING CONSIDERATIONS FOR CMOS IMAGERS

This paper presents an analysis of the impact of device and technology scaling on active pixel CMOS image sensors, Using the SIA roadmap as a guideline, we calculate the device characteristics that are germane to the image sensing performance of CMOS imagers, and highlight the ar eas where the CMOS imager technology may need to depart from ''standar d'' CMOS technologies. The impact of scaling on those analog circuit p erformance that pertain to image sensing performances are analyzed, Ou r analyses suggest that while ''standard'' CMOS technologies may provi de adequate imaging performance at the 2-1 mu m generation without any process change, some modifications to the fabrication process and inn ovations of the pixel architecture are needed to enable CMOS to perfor m good quality imaging at the 0.5 mu m technology generation and beyon d. Finally, the challenges to the CMOS imager research community are o utlined.