Cmosis, the Antwerp-based CMOS sensor firm, has developed a high resolution image sensor with an image area of 10,000 by 7,096 active pinned photodiode pixels.
The large amount of image data generated is transferred through eight analogue outputs, each running at a clock rate of 30MHz.
With a pixel pitch of 3.1µm x 3.1µm, in a 2-pixel sharing pattern, the CHR70M sensor can support a frame rate of 3frames/s at full resolution.
Higher frame rates can be achieved in windowing or sub-sampling modes. The new image sensor also integrates a programmable gain amplifier, offset regulation, as well as on-chip timing generation
In the sensor design special precautions have been taken to assure that the two pixels with shared readout behave very similarly in terms of offset and gain, to avoid checkerboard-like artifacts and the need for off-chip calibration.
"This is particularly important for the B/W version since the effect, if present, would be masked by the bayer RGB CFA pattern in the CHR70M. Due to the staggered layout of the pixel readout circuitry all pixels show similar MTF behaviour and angular sensitivity," said the company.
The sensor, which is packaged in a 65-pin ceramic PGA, offers moving-window functionality. The windowing and other settings are programmable via the built-in SPI interface.
All internal exposure and read-out timing values can be generated by a programmable on-board sequencer. External triggering and exposure programming is also possible.
It works with 3.3V signaling levels.
Typical applications for this scale of sensor are industrial imaging, such as flat-panel and PCB inspection, document scanning and areal photography.
The sensor will be available as a B/W with and without micro lenses, as well as a bayer RGB color version with microlenses.. All versions will be offered with glass cover with two-sided anti-reflective coating (ARC)
Monochrome and RGB color CHR70M samples with micro lenses will be available form January 2012.
www.cmosis.com