High-sensitivity active pixel sensor with a variable threshold photodetector

A novel high-sensitivity active pixel sensor (APS) with a variable threshold photodetector has been presented and for the first time, a simple SPICE model for the variable threshold photodetector is presented. Its SPICE model is in good agreement with measurements and is more simpler than the conventional model. The proposed APS has a gate/body-tied PMOSFET-type photodetector with an overlapping control gate that makes it possible to control the sensitivity of the proposed APS. It is a hybrid device composed of a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET), a lateral bipolar junction transistor (BJT) and a vertical BJT. Using sufficient overlapping control gate bias to operate the MOSFET in inversion mode, the variable threshold photodetector allows for increasing the photocurrent gain by 10⁵ at low light intensities when the control gate bias is -3 V. Thus, the proposed APS with a variable threshold photodetector has better low-light-level sensitivity than the conventional APS operating mode, and it has a variable sensitivity which is determined by the control gate bias. The proposed sensor has been fabricated by using 0.35 μm 2-poly 4-metal standard complementary MOS (CMOS) process and its characteristics have been evaluated.