WHAT IS A SENSOR?

A sensor is a device that measures a physical quantity and converts it into a signal which can be read by an observer or by an instrument. For example, a thermocouple converts temperature to an output voltage which can be read by a voltmeter. For accuracy, all sensors need to be calibrated against known standards. Environment: There are many sensors that work well and predictably inside, but that choke and die outdoors. Range: Most sensors work best over a certain range of distances. If something comes too close, they bottom out, and if something is too far, they cannot detect it. Thus we must choose a sensor that will detect obstacles in the range we need. Field of View: Depending upon what we are doing, we may want sensors that have a wider cone of detection. A wider field of view will cause more objects to be detected per sensor, but it also will give less information about where exactly an object is when one is detected. WHAT IS AN IMAGE SENSOR Unlike traditional camera, that use film to capture and store an image, digital cameras use solid-state device called image sensor. Image sensors contain millions of photosensitive diodes known as photosites. When you take a picture, the camera's shutter opens briefly and each photo site on the image sensor records the brightness of the light that falls on it by accumulating photons. The more light that hits a photo site, the more photons it records. The brightness recorded by each photosite is then stored as a set of numbers (digital numbers) that can then be used to set the color and brightness of a single pixel on the screen or ink on the printed page to reconstruct the image.

What IS A PIXEL The smallest discrete component of an image or picture on a CRT screen is known as a pixel. The greater the number of pixels per inch the greater is the resolution. Each pixel is a sample of an original image, where more samples typically provide more-accurate representations of the original. FILL FACTOR Fill factor refers to the percentage of a photosite that is sensitive to light. If circuits cover 25% of each photosite, the sensor is said to have a fill factor of 75%. The higher the fill factor, the more sensitive the sensor. IMAGE SENSOR HISTORY Before 1960 mainly film photography was done and vacuum tubes were being used. From 1960-1975 early research and development was done in the fields of CCD and CMOS. From 1975-1990 commercialization of CCD took place. After 1990 re-emergence of CMOS took place and amorphous Si also came into the picture. TYPES OF IMAGE SENSORS An image sensor is typically of two types: 1. Charged Coupled Device (CCD) 2. Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) CCD SENSOR HISTORY 3. The CCD started its life as a memory device and one could only "inject" charge into the device at an input register.

4. However, it was immediately clear that the CCD could receive charge via the photoelectric effect and electronic images could be created. 5. By 1969, Bell researchers were able to capture images with simple linear devices; thus the CCD was born. 6. It was conceived in 1970 at Bell Labs. Cmos 7. Complementary metaloxidesemiconductor (CMOS), is a major class of integrated circuits. CMOS technology is used in microprocessors, microcontrollers, static RAM, and other digital logic circuits. 8. CMOS technology is also used for a wide variety of analog circuits such as image sensors, data converters, and highly integrated transceivers for many types of communication. Frank Wanlass successfully patented CMOS in 1967. 9. Charge-coupled devices (CCDs) are silicon-based integrated circuits consisting of a dense matrix of photodiodes that operate by converting light energy in the form of photons into an electronic charge. 10.Electrons generated by the interaction of photons with silicon atoms are stored in a potential well and can subsequently be transferred across the chip through registers and output to an amplifier. Basic Operation of a CCD In a CCD for capturing images, there is a photoactive region, and a transmission region made out of a shift register (the CCD, properly speaking). An image is projected by a lens on the capacitor array (the photoactive region), causing each capacitor to accumulate an electric charge proportional to the light intensity at that location. A one-dimensional array, used in cameras, captures a single slice of the image, while a two-dimensional array, used in video and still cameras, captures a two-dimensional picture corresponding to the scene projected onto the focal plane of the sensor.

 Once the array has been exposed to the image, a control circuit causes each capacitor to transfer its contents to its neighbor. The last capacitor in the array dumps its charge into a charge amplifier, which converts the charge into a voltage. By repeating this process, the controlling circuit converts the entire semiconductor contents of the array to a sequence of voltages, which it samples, digitizes and stores in some form of memory.