New-Tech Magazine - Europe | January Digital edition

CMOS Sensors Boost High-End Medical, Industrial and Consumer Imaging

mage capture of real-world scenes and blending this I Pieter Willems , CMOSIS with virtual in-formation represented as visual patterns is a vital tool in a growing number of industrial, medical and consumer applications. This new CMOS image sensor is used in a new imaging device for non-invasive cancer assessment. It forms the heart of a custom developed camera, which is used by FFOCT (Full Field Optical Coherence tomography) en-doscopes for in-vivo optical probing as well as fast ex-vivo microscopy. The new CSI2100 sensor features an extremely high full-well capacity of 1.6 million electrons in its 1440x1400 pixels and a frame rate up to 700fps. Advanced image-capture applications

are opening up in a broad variety of products and systems. Yet there is no one specific image sensor to serve all those different conditions. Every system is best served with a specific imager optimized and designed to match the prevailing applica-tion and user requirements. (Figure 2) This is especially true for indus-trial and medical vision applications. Thus, such digital camera applications require carefully laid-out image sensors adapted to deliver the best possible results in terms of resolu- tion, noise, speed, spectral sensitivity, robustness, life cycle and price point. A comparison with natural vision capabilities in animals is helpful in this regard: birds of prey, snakes

and cats all depend on very differ- ent kinds of visual input in terms of spectral sensitivity, field of view and resolution. As a consequence their “image sensors” have evolved to match the specific circumstances and necessities of their lives. High Full-Well Capacity A good example of sensor specialization is the new high-speed CMOS image sensor CSI2100 made by CMOSIS targeting demanding scientific and medical applications. With its global-shutter layout of 1440 x 1440 pixels at a pixel pitch of 12µm, the CSI2100 achieves the extremely high full-well charge of 1.6 Me per pixel – delivering unprecedented

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