Impact of substrate bias on fixed-pattern-noise in active pixel sensor cells

The effect of substrate (body) bias on fixed-pattern-noise (FPN) in active pixel sensor (APS) cells is studied. Through measuring test devices consisting of two metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) connected in series with each of the transistors located in the same well region, it has been revealed that substrate bias, which is inevitably applied in a normal circuit configuration in conventional APS cells, worsens the characteristics fluctuation in source-follower amplifiers in APS cells, leading to FPN that cannot be mitigated by conventional correction methods such as correlated double sampling. In addition it has been confirmed that the current-voltage characteristics of logarithmic converters, each of which is realized using a MOSFET with gate and drain terminals connected together, are also affected by substrate bias, resulting in increased characteristics fluctuation as compared with the case with no substrate bias.