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Recently we have presented proximity capacitance CMOS image sensors with 0.1 aF detection accuracy with advanced noise cancelling [18][19][20][21] . In this paper, the proximity capacitance CMOS image sensor technology with high detection accuracy, high spatial resolution and real-time detection and its applications are presented.The proposed circuit architecture, working principles, structure and its applications will be described in detail in the following sections.

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This paper presents newly developed two high-precision CMOS proximity capacitance image sensors: Chip A with 12 μm pitch pixels with a large detection area of 1.68 cm2; Chip B with 2.8 μm pitch 1.8 M pixels for a higher resolution. Both fabricated chips achieved a capacitance detection precision of less than 100 zF (10−19 F) at an input voltage of 20 V and less than 10 zF (10−20 F) at 300 V due to the noise cancelling technique. Furthermore, by using multiple input pulse amplitudes, a capacitance detection dynamic range of up to 123 dB was achieved. The spatial resolution improvement was confirmed by the experimentally obtained modulation transfer function for Chip B with various line and space pattens. The examples of capacitance imaging using the fabricated chips were also demonstrated.