In recent years, complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) imaging sensors have been replacing charge-coupled device (CCD) imagers in consumer and industrial markets. Their low cost and high peripheral integration on chip gives new opportunities to those who have not adopted CCD technology due to cost or technical concerns. This paper describes the design of a prototype CMOS camera for use in spectral experiments with noise reduction techniques to improve image quality. We use a Peltier device to cool the sensor, a synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM) frame buffer for storage and a universal serial bus (USB) interface to transfer the data at a high speed.
MeynantsG.DierickxB.MeynantsG.DierickxB.CMOS active pixel image sensor with CCD performance. In AFPAEC Europto/SPIE, Proceedings of the SPIE, Vol. 3410, Zurich, Switzerland, 18–21 May 1998, pp. 68–76.
2.
FujimoriI. L.WangC.FujimoriI. L.WangC.A 256 × 256 CMOS differential passive pixel imager with FPN techniques. IEEE J. Solid State Circuits, December 2000, 35(12).
3.
TianH.FowlerB.TianH.FowlerB.Analysis of temporal noise in CMOS photodiode active pixel sensor. IEEE J. Solid State Circuits, January 2001, 36(1).
4.
NewberryM. V.Signal to noise considerations for sky subtracted CCD data. Pubs Astr. Soc. Pacif., January 1991, 103, 122–130.
