CMOS Image Sensor: Current Status and Future Perspectives

CMOS Image Sensor (CIS) technology has made huge progress in the past decade. Not only have the imagers seen drastic performance improvements, but their commercial success also boomed after the introduction of the mobile phone with camera module. While the phone camera has led the dramatic growth of imaging markets overall, digital still camera manufacturers are adopting CIS to support Full HD video capture. Digital camera technology is highly focused on image quality, and manufacturers previously have been reluctant to use CIS rather than CCD. This paper describes the current status of CIS, as well as future perspectives.