Low-Power CMOS Digital Pixel Imagers for High-Speed Uncooled PbSe IR Applications

190 Pages·2017·12.817 MB·English

by  Josep Maria Margarit (auth.)

Springer Theses
Recognizing Outstanding Ph.D. Research
Josep Maria Margarit

Low-Power CMOS
Digital Pixel Imagers
for High-Speed
Uncooled PbSe IR
Applications
Springer Theses
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Josep Maria Margarit
Low-Power CMOS
Digital Pixel Imagers
for High-Speed Uncooled
PbSe IR Applications
Doctoral Thesis accepted by
è
Universitat Polit cnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona,
Spain
123
Author Supervisors
Dr. Josep Maria Margarit Dr. Francesc Serra-Graells
Departament d’Enginyeria Electrònica DepartamentdeMicroelectrònicaiSistemes
Universitat PolitècnicadeCatalunya (UPC) Electrònics,Escola d’Enginyeria
Barcelona Universitat Autònoma deBarcelona(UAB)
Spain Cerdanyola del Vallès,Barcelona
Spain
and
Dr. Lluís Terés
Institut deMicroelectrònica de Institut deMicroelectrònica de
Barcelona- CentroNacional de Barcelona- CentroNacional de
Microelectrónica (IMB-CNM) Microelectrónica,Consejo Superiorde
ConsejoSuperior deInvestigaciones Investigaciones Científicas
Científicas(CSIC) (IMB-CNM(CSIC)), CampusUAB
Barcelona Cerdanyola del Vallès,Barcelona
Spain Spain
ISSN 2190-5053 ISSN 2190-5061 (electronic)
SpringerTheses
ISBN978-3-319-49961-1 ISBN978-3-319-49962-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-49962-8
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016957866
©SpringerInternationalPublishingAG2017
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In the loving memory of my brother, Pere,
and my grandparents Eulalia and Josep.
’
Supervisors Foreword
ItisourpleasuretopresentDr.JosepMariaMargarit’sPh.D.thesiswork,accepted
for publication within the Springer Theses series and awarded with a prize for
outstandingoriginalwork.Dr.MargaritjoinedourresearchgroupattheInstitutde
Microelectrònica de Barcelona—Centro Nacional de Microelectrónica of the
Spanish National Research Council, IMB-CNM(CSIC), to complete the master
program in electronic engineering offered at the Universitat Politècnica de
Catalunya (UPC). After finishing his masters’ thesis in 2008, he was granted with
two predoctoral research fellowships from the Catalan Agency for Management of
University and Research Grants: a 3-year Industrial Research Fellowship Grant
Award (ref. 2009-TEM-00020) in cooperation with the companies New Infrared
Technologies(NIT)S.L.andD+TMicroelectrónicaA.I.E.,Spain,andanOutgoing
Research Fellowship Grant Award (ref. 2011-BE-DGR-00908) at the Institute of
NeuroinformaticsinZurich,Switzerland.Thesefellowshipsallowedhimtofurther
develop his basic and applied research activities under our supervision toward the
doctoral degree. Dr. Margarit defended his thesis with the highest marks and
International Mention in November 3, 2015.
The dissertation of Dr. Margarit includes significant original scientific contri-
butionsandrepresentsaconsiderableadvanceinthefieldofsolid-stateIRimaging.
SuchcontributionshavebeendistinguishedwithaBestPaperAwardfromtheIEEE
Circuits and Systems Society (CAS)—Sensory Systems Technical Committee
(SSTC) and have been published in top peer-reviewed journals and international
well-recognized conferences. Industrial achievements have been covered in two
world patents and commercialized as a new line of uncooled IR cameras for
real-time mainstream applications.
We would like to emphasize the comprehensiveness of the work accomplished
by Dr. Margarit, set within multidisciplinary research to bring, for the first time,
kHz-range uncooled MWIR photonic imaging into standard, monolithic, low-cost
submicron CMOS technologies. The work required to conceive, design, and inte-
grate imager architectures that overcome the specific challenges posed by the
PbSe IR detector—such as high dark-to-signal current ratios, large input parasitic
vii
viii Supervisors’Foreword
capacitance values, and remarkable mismatching in its deposition—while
minimizing power consumption and delivering high-speed video. In order to
achieve these demands and potentiate the proliferation of photoconductive PbSe
technology to different vision scenarios and at different stages of PbSe–CMOS
integration maturity, Dr. Margarit investigated a comprehensive set of truly digital
pixel sensors for both frame-based and frame-free imaging. The research was
extended as well to the development of affordable sensor emulation strategies and
integratedtestplatforms.Bothapproacheswerespecificallyorientedtoperformthe
electricalvalidationoffirstprototypesindependentlyofexpensivePbSedeposition
processesatwaferlevel.Digitalpixelsensorcells,completeimagers,andtestchips
were fabricated and characterized instandard0.15lm1P6M, 0.35 lm 2P4M, and
2.5 lm 2P1M CMOS technologies, all as part of research projects with industrial
partnership.
Somepartsoftheresearchwerecarriedoutincollaborationwithotherscientists,
inparticular,withthegroupofProf.TobiasDelbruckattheSwissFederalInstitute
of Technology (ETH) inZurich, Switzerland, inthe fieldof bioinspired frame-free
vision sensors, with the group of Prof. Alejandro Linares-Barranco at the
Universidad de Sevilla (US), Spain, on the topic of event-driven computer inter-
faces, and with CEO Dr. Germán Vergara and the technical team of NIT S.L. to
address PbSe–CMOS integration, electro-optical characterization, and technology
transferattheendofthethesis.Theaforementionedcollaborationshaveopenedthe
door to new scientific ventures within our group, giving birth to future doctoral
pursuits and new European industrial research proposals.
Bellaterra Dr. Francesc Serra-Graells
September 2016 Dr. Lluís Terés
Parts of this thesis have been published in the following articles:
Peer-reviewed Journals
• J. M. Margarit, G. Vergara, V. Villamayor, R. Gutiérrez-Álvarez, C.
Fernández-Montojo, L. Terés and F. Serra-Graells, “A 2 kfps Sub-lW/pix
Uncooled-PbseDigitalImager with 10 bitDR AdjustmentandFPNCorrection
for High-Speed and Low-Cost MWIR Applications,” in IEEE Journal of
Solid-StateCircuits,vol.50,no.10,pp.2081–2084,October2015.DOI:http://
dx.doi.org/10.1109/JSSC.2015.2464672.1,2 (See Footnote)
• J.M.Margarit,L.TerésandF.Serra-Graells,“ASub-lWFullyTunableCMOS
DPS for Uncooled Infrared Fast Imaging,” in IEEE Transactions on Circuits
and Systems-I, vol. 56, no. 5, pp. 987–996, May 2009. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/
10.1109/TCSI.2008.2006644. Invited paper.3 (See Footnote 1)
International Conferences
• J. M. Margarit, L. Terés, E. Cabruja and F. Serra-Graells, “A 10kfps 32(cid:1)32
Integrated Test Platform for Electrical Characterization of Imagers,” in
Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems,
pp. 53–56, Melbourne, Australia, June 2014. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/
ISCAS.2014.6865063.4 (See Footnote 1)
• J. M. Margarit, M. Dei, L. Terés and F. Serra-Graells, “A Self-Biased
PLL-TunedAERPixelforHigh-SpeedInfraredImagers,”inProceedingsofthe
IEEEInternationalSymposiumonCircuitsandSystems,pp.1812–1815,Riode
Janeiro, Brazil, May 2011. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ISCAS.2011.
5937937.5 (See Footnote 1)
• G. Vergara, R. Gutiérrez, L. J. Gómez, V. Villamayor, M. Álvarez,
M. C. Torquemada, M. T. Rodrigo, M. Verdú, F. J. Sánchez, R. M. Almazán,
J. Plaza del Olmo, P. Rodríguez, I. Catalán, D. Fernández, A. Heras,
F. Serra-Graells, J. M. Margarit, L. Terés, G. de Arcas, M. Ruiz, J. M. López,
“FastUncooledLowDensityFPAofVPDPbSe,”inProceedingsofSPIE,vol.
7298, Bellingham, USA, 2009. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.819092.
• J. M. Margarit, L. Terés and F. Serra-Graells, “A Sub-1lW Fully
Programmable CMOS DPS for Uncooled Infrared Fast Imaging,” in
Proceedings of the XXIII Conference on Design of Circuits and Integrated
Systems, Grenoble, France, November 2008.
1ExcerptsfromthesepapersappearwithpermissionfromIEEE.
2(cid:2)2015IEEE.
3(cid:2)2009IEEE.
4(cid:2)2014IEEE.
5(cid:2)2011IEEE.
ix
x Partsofthisthesishavebeenpublishedinthefollowingarticles:
• J. M. Margarit, L. Terés and F. Serra-Graells, “A Sub-lW Fully
Programmable CMOS DPS for Uncooled Infrared Fast Imaging,” in
Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems,
pp. 1424–1427, Seattle, USA, May 2008. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/
ISCAS.2008.4541695. 2008 Best Paper Award by the Sensory Systems
Technical Committee of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society.
• J. M. Margarit, J. Sabadell, L. Terés and F. Serra-Graells, “A Novel DPS
Integrator for Fast CMOS Imagers,” in Proceedings of the IEEE International
Symposium on Circuits and Systems, pp. 1632–1635, Seattle, USA, May 2008.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ISCAS.2008.4541747.
• F. Serra-Graells, J. M. Margarit and L. Terés, “A Self-Biased and
FPN-Compensated Digital APS for Hybrid CMOS Imagers,” in Proceedings
oftheIEEEInternationalSymposium onCircuitsandSystems,pp.2850–2853,
New Orleans, USA, May 2007. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ISCAS.2007.
378766.
• G. Vergara, L. J. Gómez, V. Villamayor, M. Álvarez, M. C. Torquemada,
M.T.Rodrigo,M.Verdú,F.J.Sánchez,R.M.Almazán,J.Plaza,P.Rodriguez,
I. Catalán, R. Gutiérrez, M. T. Montojo, F. Serra-Graells, J. M. Margarit and
L. Terés, ‘Monolithic Uncooled IR Detectors of Polycrystalline PbSe: a Real
Alternative,” in Proceedings of SPIE, vol. 6542, Orlando, USA, April 2007.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.719189.