Image Sensor With Focal Plane Extraction of Polarimetric Information

Abstract

A novel focal plane imaging sensor capable of real time extraction of polarization information is presented. The imaging system consists of a photo array of 256 by 256 linear current mode active pixel sensors (APS). Analog processing circuitry is included at the focal plane for noise suppression and computation of the Stokes parameters. The imaging sensor was fabricated in 0.18μm process with 10μm pixel pitch and 75% fill factor. An array of micro polarizer is designed and fabricated separately and will be mounted on top of the imaging array. Simulation results of the imaging sensor are presented. This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Such permission of the IEEE does not in any way imply IEEE endorsement of any of the University of Pennsylvania's products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to pubs-permissions@ieee.org. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.This conference paper is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/ese_papers/245 Image Sensor With Focal Plane Extraction of Polarimetric InformationViktor Gruev, Jan Van der Spiegel and Nader EnghetaElectrical and Systems Engineering Department University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania {vgruev, jan}@seas.upenn.edu, engheta@ee.upenn.edu Abstract-A novel focal plane imaging sensor capable of real time extraction of polarization information is presented. The imaging system consists of a photo array of 256 by 256 linear current mode active pixel sensors (APS). Analog processing circuitry is included at the focal plane for noise suppression and computation of the Stokes parameters. The imaging sensor was fabricated in 0.18µm process with 10µm pixel pitch and 75% fill factor. An array of micro polarizer is designed and fabricated separately and will be mounted on top of the imaging array. Simulation results of the imaging sensor are presented.

Linear Current-Mode Active Pixel Sensor

“…The use of current output pixels has two main advantages over the use of their voltage-mode counterparts. First, they simplify many on-chip computation tasks; large scale computations can be performed on the focal plane using current mode computation-on-readout [1]- [3]. Second, many current mode pixels, including the proposed pixel, have fixed output voltages, eliminating the requirement to charge and discharge the column capacitances during readout, yielding the potential for significantly higher scan-out rates.…”

Full-Stokes Imaging Polarimetry Using Dielectric Metasurfaces

“…While spectral and hyperspectral imaging techniques provide information about the molecular and material composition of a scene [1,2], polarimetric imaging contains information about the shape and texture of reflecting surfaces, the orientation of light emitters, or the optical activity of various materials [3,4]. This additional information has led to many applications for imaging polarimetry ranging from astronomy and remote sensing to marine biology and medicine [3,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11].Therefore, several methods have been developed over the past decades to enable mapping of the polarization state over an extended scene [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18].Generally, polarimetric imaging techniques can be categorized into three groups: division of amplitude, division of aperture, and division of focal plane [3]. All of these techniques are based on measuring the intensity in different polarization bases and using them to estimate the full Stokes vector or a part of it.…”

“…Therefore, several methods have been developed over the past decades to enable mapping of the polarization state over an extended scene [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”

“…All of these techniques are based on measuring the intensity in different polarization bases and using them to estimate the full Stokes vector or a part of it. Among various systems, DoFP-PCs are less expensive, more compact, and require less complicated optics [16][17][18]. In addition, they require much less effort for registering images of different polarizations as the registration is automatically achieved in the fabrication of the polarization sensitive image sensors.…”

Fabrication of a dual-tier thin film micropolarization array

“…away form the imaging array, with programmable analog scaling circuitry in accordance to the first three Stokes parameter equations (equation (1) through (3)). The details of the addressing scheme of block of 2 by 2 pixels and analog processing circuitry are described in [12].…”