A 160×120-pixels range camera with on-pixel correlated double sampling and nonuniformity correction in 29.1µm pitch

This paper presents the design and test of a CMOS integrated circuit implementing a 160×120-pixels 3D camera. The on-pixel processing allows the use of Indirect Time-Of-Flight technique for distance measurement with reset noise removal through Correlated Double Sampling and embedded fixed-pattern noise reduction, while a fast readout operation allows to stream out the pixels values at a maximum rate of 10MSample/s. The imager can operate as a fast 2D camera up to 458fps, a 3D camera up to 80fps or both. The chip has been fabricated using a standard 0.18μm 1P4M 1.8V CMOS technology with MIM capacitors. The resulting pixel has a pitch of 29.1μm with a fill-factor of 34% and consists of 66 transistors. Distance measurements up to 4.5m have been performed with pulsed laser light, achieving 2.5cm precision at 2m in real-time.