0.1aF Detection Accuracy Capacitive Sensor

Japanese ITE Transactions on Media Technology and Applications publishes an invited paper "High Accuracy High Spatial Resolution and Real-Time CMOS Proximity Capacitance Image Sensor Technology and its Applications" by Rihito Kuroda, Masahiro Yamamoto, Yuki Sugama, Yoshiaki Watanabe, Manabu Suzuki, Tetsuya Goto, Toshiro Yasuda, Shinichi Murakami, Yayoi Yokomichi, Hiroshi Hamori, and Shigetoshi Sugawa from Tohoku University and OHT Inc.

"This paper presents a CMOS proximity capacitance image sensor technology achieving 0.1aF detection accuracy with high spatial resolution with real-time imaging capability for industrial, life science, and biometric applications. The proposed image sensor circuits, its working principle and device structures are described in this paper, and additionally, we discuss the foreseen technology roadmap. The fabricated chips with 16um pitch pixels achieved a 0.1aF detection accuracy with the input voltage of 20V, thanks to the employed noise reduction technology. The examples of capacitance imaging using the fabricated CMOS proximity capacitance image sensor are demonstrated."