A 1.16 e-rms Temporal Random Noise, 123-dB High Dynamic Range, 2.988- μ m Pitch 3-Mpixel Three-Stacked Digital Pixel Sensor for Versatile Applications

This article presents a 3-Mpixel (Mp) three-stacked digital pixel sensor (DPS) featuring the world’s smallest pixel pitch of $2.988~\mu $ m, achieving a low temporal random noise (RN) of 1.16 e-rms and a high dynamic range (HDR) of 123 dB in global-shutter (GS) operation mode for versatile applications. To realize both the low RN and HDR performance, the developed DPS employs a pixel-parallel analog-to-digital converter (P-ADC) architecture with an extremely narrow noise bandwidth (BW), as well as a split photodiode (PD) structure combined with signal chopping operation to mitigate the LED flicker phenomenon. In addition, the DPS leverages a three-stacked sensor architecture, which enables a compact pixel footprint while enhancing on-chip image signal processing (ISP) capabilities and supporting efficient HDR merging. Chip-level evaluations confirm the superior performance of the proposed DPS, demonstrating its potential for high-performance imaging in mobile, automotive, machine vision (MV), and other advanced applications.