A Bidirectional Multiple Charge Transfer Active Pixel Image Sensor for Low-Power Focal Plane Motion Vector Estimation

Abstract

This paper proposes a CMOS image sensor with high-speed non-destructive image sensing mode using bidirectional multiple charge transfer active pixels. The proposed image sensor is suitable for low-power focal plane motion vector estimation using iterative block matching while maintaining the image quality of video-rate (33ms/frame) pictures and the accuracy of the motion vector estimation. The performances of the bidirectional multiple charge transfer active pixel sensor are evaluated by circuit simulations and the proper operation of the sensor is confirmed by experiments.