Backside illuminated CMOS-TDI line scanner for space applications

Abstract

A new multi-spectral line scanner CMOS image sensor is reported. The backside illuminated (BSI) image sensor was designed for continuous scanning Low Earth Orbit (LEO) space applications including A custom high quality CMOS Active Pixels, Time Delayed Integration (TDI) mechanism that increases the SNR, 2-phase exposure mechanism that increases the dynamic Modulation Transfer Function (MTF), very low power internal Analog to Digital Converters (ADC) with resolution of 12 bit per pixel and on chip controller. The sensor has 4 independent arrays of pixels where each array is arranged in 2600 TDI columns with controllable TDI depth from 8 up to 64 TDI levels. A multispectral optical filter with specific spectral response per array is assembled at the package level. In this paper we briefly describe the sensor design and present some electrical and electrooptical recent measurements of the first prototypes including high Quantum Efficiency (QE), high MTF, wide range selectable Full Well Capacity (FWC), excellent linearity of approximately 1.3% in a signal range of 5-85% and approximately 1.75% in a signal range of 2-95% out of the signal span, readout noise of approximately 95 electrons with 64 TDI levels, negligible dark current and power consumption of less than 1.5W total for 4 bands sensor at all operation conditions .

Automated Scanning Techniques Using UR5

“…Another area where line scanning is used is in space applications, particularly in continuous scanning of low earth orbit (LEO). CMOS-TDI line sensors, a sensor type used in space applications, convert an incident light signal into an electrical signal [8]. Concisely, the scanner has several pixels where each pixel collects photons from the same region but at different times and the time difference is considered to produce a better scan of low earth orbit images [8].…”

“…CMOS-TDI line sensors, a sensor type used in space applications, convert an incident light signal into an electrical signal [8]. Concisely, the scanner has several pixels where each pixel collects photons from the same region but at different times and the time difference is considered to produce a better scan of low earth orbit images [8]. The field of archeology uses scanning technologies to study artefacts [7,9].…”