An Ultra-Low Power CMOS Image Sensor with On-Chip Energy Harvesting and Power Management Capability

Sensors

Ismail Cevik¹  Xiwei Huang²  Hao Yu³  Mei Yan³  Suat U. Ay¹ 

[1] Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University Idaho, 875 Perimeter Drive MS 1023 Moscow, ID 83844-1023, USA; E-Mail:;School of Electronics and Information, Hangzhou Dianzi University, No.1 Avenue, 2 Xiasha, Hangzhou 310018, China; E-Mail:;Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), 50 Nanyang Avenue, 639798, Singapore; E-Mails:

关键词: ultra-low power;    CMOS image sensor;    energy harvesting;    power management;    MPPT;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s150305531

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

An ultra-low power CMOS image sensor with on-chip energy harvesting and power management capability is introduced in this paper. The photodiode pixel array can not only capture images but also harvest solar energy. As such, the CMOS image sensor chip is able to switch between imaging and harvesting modes towards self-power operation. Moreover, an on-chip maximum power point tracking (MPPT)-based power management system (PMS) is designed for the dual-mode image sensor to further improve the energy efficiency. A new isolated P-well energy harvesting and imaging (EHI) pixel with very high fill factor is introduced. Several ultra-low power design techniques such as reset and select boosting techniques have been utilized to maintain a wide pixel dynamic range. The chip was designed and fabricated in a 1.8 V, 1P6M 0.18 µm CMOS process. Total power consumption of the imager is 6.53 µW for a 96 × 96 pixel array with 1 V supply and 5 fps frame rate. Up to 30 μW of power could be generated by the new EHI pixels. The PMS is capable of providing 3× the power required during imaging mode with 50% efficiency allowing energy autonomous operation with a 72.5% duty cycle.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.