Two counters count the clock cycles between the reference levels and the signal and reset levels, then the final value is calculated as the ratio between the two counters.
Saturday, January 07, 2012
CMOSIS 2nd Patent on Ramp ADC Granted
CMOSIS announces that its second patent on ramp ADC has been granted. The US8040269 patent proposes to speedup column-level ADC converter by using just one ramp cycle to measure previously sampled column reset and signal levels:
Two counters count the clock cycles between the reference levels and the signal and reset levels, then the final value is calculated as the ratio between the two counters.
Two counters count the clock cycles between the reference levels and the signal and reset levels, then the final value is calculated as the ratio between the two counters.
Good idea anyway. It should be useful for large array where the RC of metal lines could be a problem for a fast ramp signal.
ReplyDeleteI didn't read the patent, but I'm pretty sure the equation at the bottom of the figure should read Final signal value = cntr_signal - cntr_reference.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! By dividing the result, it is made sort of clock independent.
ReplyDeleteThe final cntr_signal includes implicit digital subtraction of V_reset from V_signal (e.g. digital CDS). Dividing by cntr_reference normalizes the measured cntr_signal to the full range between V_ref1 and V_ref2.
ReplyDeleteI think the general idea is interesting, if fraught with peril. On the plus side, the A/D throughput is doubled. On the minus side, multiple design headaches come to mind immediately. Now where is my A/Dvil...?
Is CMOSIS applying this concept in their CMV line of sensors?
ReplyDelete