Abstract
CMOS active pixel sensor (CMOS APS) is an emerging technology in solid state imaging devices. It figures low power consumption, low cost, high quantum efficiency, low read-out noise, high dynamic range, random access, and compatibility with CMOS technology. And so-called System On Chip (SOC) can be achieved by integrating other peripheral circuits with sensor array. Owing to all the advantages mentioned above, CMOS imagers gradually supersede the markets of charge coupled devices (CCDs). CMOS image sensor can be widely used in PC cameras, surveillance system, video phones, camcorders, etc. Hence, CMOS imager is a very important device in imaging system. In this dissertation, we use TSMC 0.6 □m fully CMOS technology without any additional masks to implement many different photodiode-type active pixel sensor test-keys. We find out that sensitivity has very strong dependence on the width of depletion region. In general, sensitivity is in propotion to the square of depletion width. Dark current can be attributed to p/n junction edge effect, and it can be suppressed by reducing edge field. As for color temperature response, we get higher sensitivity when system is in low color temperature. In spectral response, red response is larger than green response, and green response is larger than that of blue.