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Advanced CMOS Sensors and Applications

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Physical Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2021) | Viewed by 37624

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Electronic and Biomedical Engineering, University of Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: microelectronics; microelectronic design; microscopy; lensless; nano-illumination; SPAD
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The integration of electronics in CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) offers a designer many desirable features, such as customized analog functionalities, low-power consumption, and high bandwidth. Innovation in the field of CMOS integration exceeds that of practically any other industry these days. It enables applications in Biotechnology, the Internet of Things, and many other technologies.

In particular, full advantage can be taken when CMOS electronics and sensors or MEMS are integrated on the same chip because this allows for the same piece of silicon to incorporate both the sensors or actuators and the control and processing electronics.

The aim of this Special Issue is to provide an overview of current research in the field of advanced CMOS sensors and applications with original contributions as well as review papers. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • The integration of image sensors with processing electronics for advanced applications;
  • Portable and wearable technologies that integrate CMOS sensors;
  • Combinations of sensors and electronics for: Healthcare, the Internet-of-Things, High-Energy Physics, Space, etc.;
  • Smart and system-on-a-chip CMOS sensors;
  • Sensors in emerging technologies for CMOS (3D ICs, integration of photonics, etc.).

Prof. Dr. Angel Diéguez
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • CMOS
  • healthcare
  • IoT
  • HEP
  • automotive
  • portable
  • wearable
  • implantable
  • biosensors
  • 3D ICs

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 3284 KiB  
Article
A Compact Raster Lensless Microscope Based on a Microdisplay
by Anna Vilà, Sergio Moreno, Joan Canals and Angel Diéguez
Sensors 2021, 21(17), 5941; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21175941 - 3 Sep 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2976
Abstract
Lensless microscopy requires the simplest possible configuration, as it uses only a light source, the sample and an image sensor. The smallest practical microscope is demonstrated here. In contrast to standard lensless microscopy, the object is located near the lighting source. Raster optical [...] Read more.
Lensless microscopy requires the simplest possible configuration, as it uses only a light source, the sample and an image sensor. The smallest practical microscope is demonstrated here. In contrast to standard lensless microscopy, the object is located near the lighting source. Raster optical microscopy is applied by using a single-pixel detector and a microdisplay. Maximum resolution relies on reduced LED size and the position of the sample respect the microdisplay. Contrarily to other sort of digital lensless holographic microscopes, light backpropagation is not required to reconstruct the images of the sample. In a mm-high microscope, resolutions down to 800 nm have been demonstrated even when measuring with detectors as large as 138 μm × 138 μm, with field of view given by the display size. Dedicated technology would shorten measuring time. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced CMOS Sensors and Applications)
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14 pages, 6099 KiB  
Article
Research on a CMOS-MEMS Infrared Sensor with Reduced Graphene Oxide
by Shu-Jung Chen and Bin Chen
Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4007; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144007 - 18 Jul 2020
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 5395
Abstract
In this research, a new application of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) for a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-MEMS infrared (IR) sensor and emitter is proposed. Thorough investigations of IR properties including absorption and emission were proceeded with careful calibration and measurement with a CMOS thermoelectric [...] Read more.
In this research, a new application of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) for a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-MEMS infrared (IR) sensor and emitter is proposed. Thorough investigations of IR properties including absorption and emission were proceeded with careful calibration and measurement with a CMOS thermoelectric sensor. The thermocouples of the sensor consist of aluminum and n-polysilicon layers which are fabricated with the TSMC 0.35 μm CMOS process and MEMS post-process. In order to improve the adhesion of rGO, a sensing area at the center of the membrane is formed with an array of holes, which is easy for the drop-coating of rGO material upon the sensing region. To evaluate the performance of the IR sensor with rGO, different conditions of the IR thermal radiation experiments were arranged. The results show that the responsivity of our proposed CMOS-MEMS IR sensor with rGO increases by about 77% compared with the sensor without rGO. For different IR absorption incident angles, the measurement of field of view shows that the CMOS-MEMS IR sensor with rGO has a smaller view angle, which can be applied for the application of long-distance measuring. In addition, characteristics of the proposed thermopile are estimated and analyzed with comparisons to the available commercial sensors by the experiments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced CMOS Sensors and Applications)
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15 pages, 3459 KiB  
Article
Challenges for Microelectronics in Non-Invasive Medical Diagnostics
by Marco Carminati and Carlo Fiorini
Sensors 2020, 20(13), 3636; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20133636 - 29 Jun 2020
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4191
Abstract
Microelectronics is emerging, sometimes with changing fortunes, as a key enabling technology in diagnostics. This paper reviews some recent results and technical challenges which still need to be addressed in terms of the design of CMOS analog application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and [...] Read more.
Microelectronics is emerging, sometimes with changing fortunes, as a key enabling technology in diagnostics. This paper reviews some recent results and technical challenges which still need to be addressed in terms of the design of CMOS analog application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and their integration in the surrounding systems, in order to consolidate this technological paradigm. Open issues are discussed from two, apparently distant but complementary, points of view: micro-analytical devices, combining microfluidics with affinity bio-sensing, and gamma cameras for simultaneous multi-modal imaging, namely scintigraphy and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The role of integrated circuits is central in both application domains. In portable analytical platforms, ASICs offer miniaturization and tackle the noise/power dissipation trade-off. The integration of CMOS chips with microfluidics poses multiple open technological issues. In multi-modal imaging, now that the compatibility of the acquisition chains (thousands of Silicon Photo-Multipliers channels) of gamma detectors with Tesla-level magnetic fields has been demonstrated, other development directions, enabled by microelectronics, can be envisioned in particular for single-photon emission tomography (SPECT): a faster and simplified operation, for instance, to allow transportable applications (bed-side) and hardware pre-processing that reduces the number of output signals and the image reconstruction time. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced CMOS Sensors and Applications)
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14 pages, 10809 KiB  
Article
Deep Trench Isolation and Inverted Pyramid Array Structures Used to Enhance Optical Efficiency of Photodiode in CMOS Image Sensor via Simulations
by Chang-Fu Han, Jiun-Ming Chiou and Jen-Fin Lin
Sensors 2020, 20(11), 3062; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20113062 - 28 May 2020
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 7731
Abstract
The photodiode in the backside-illuminated CMOS sensor is modeled to analyze the optical performances in a range of wavelengths (300–1100 nm). The effects of changing in the deep trench isolation depth (DTI) and pitch size (d) of the inverted pyramid array (IPA) on [...] Read more.
The photodiode in the backside-illuminated CMOS sensor is modeled to analyze the optical performances in a range of wavelengths (300–1100 nm). The effects of changing in the deep trench isolation depth (DTI) and pitch size (d) of the inverted pyramid array (IPA) on the peak value (OEmax.) of optical efficiency (OE) and its wavelength region are identified first. Then, the growth ratio (GR) is defined for the OE change in these wavelength ranges to highlight the effectiveness of various DTI and d combinations on the OEs and evaluate the OE difference between the pixel arrays with and without the DTI + IPA structures. Increasing DTI can bring in monotonous OEmax. increases in the entire wavelength region. For a fixed DTI, the maximum OEmax. is formed as the flat plane (d = 0 nm) is chosen for the top surface of Si photodiode in the RGB pixels operating at the visible light wavelengths; whereas different nonzero value is needed to obtain the maximum OEmax. for the RGB pixels operating in the near-infrared (NIR) region. The optimum choice in d for each color pixel and DTI depth can elevate the maximum GR value in the NIR region up to 82.2%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced CMOS Sensors and Applications)
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Review

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56 pages, 6227 KiB  
Review
Sensors for Positron Emission Tomography Applications
by Wei Jiang, Yamn Chalich and M. Jamal Deen
Sensors 2019, 19(22), 5019; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19225019 - 17 Nov 2019
Cited by 61 | Viewed by 16236
Abstract
Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging is an essential tool in clinical applications for the diagnosis of diseases due to its ability to acquire functional images to help differentiate between metabolic and biological activities at the molecular level. One key limiting factor in the [...] Read more.
Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging is an essential tool in clinical applications for the diagnosis of diseases due to its ability to acquire functional images to help differentiate between metabolic and biological activities at the molecular level. One key limiting factor in the development of efficient and accurate PET systems is the sensor technology in the PET detector. There are generally four types of sensor technologies employed: photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), avalanche photodiodes (APDs), silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs), and cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) detectors. PMTs were widely used for PET applications in the early days due to their excellent performance metrics of high gain, low noise, and fast timing. However, the fragility and bulkiness of the PMT glass tubes, high operating voltage, and sensitivity to magnetic fields ultimately limit this technology for future cost-effective and multi-modal systems. As a result, solid-state photodetectors like the APD, SiPM, and CZT detectors, and their applications for PET systems, have attracted lots of research interest, especially owing to the continual advancements in the semiconductor fabrication process. In this review, we study and discuss the operating principles, key performance parameters, and PET applications for each type of sensor technology with an emphasis on SiPM and CZT detectors—the two most promising types of sensors for future PET systems. We also present the sensor technologies used in commercially available state-of-the-art PET systems. Finally, the strengths and weaknesses of these four types of sensors are compared and the research challenges of SiPM and CZT detectors are discussed and summarized. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced CMOS Sensors and Applications)
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