9-3 Development of Wide Dynamic-Range Camera that Employ Logarithmic Characteristicsof VOD Structure in CCD

Abstract

Development of a wide dynamic-range camera that employ logarithmic characteristic of Vertical Overflow Drain(VOD) structure is reported. This includes; 1) Fixed Pattern Noise(FPN) canceller using an image captured with electrons injection to photodiodes from N-substrate; 2) Log-to-linear function; 3) Dynamic-range compression preserving linear color space. Using both logarithmic and linear sensitivity ranges, this camera has 100 times higher dynamic-range than conventional CCD cameras that only use linear sensitivity range.