CMOS active pixel sensor using native transistors

Year	Description
1998	Invention patented by Richard B. Merrill and Tsung-Wen Lee on August 19th, 1998. Abstract: An active pixel sensor including low threshold voltage transistors advantageously provides an increased output swing over an active pixel sensor of the prior art. The low threshold voltage transistor can be achieved using either a native transistor or a depletion mode transistor. In a process in which a threshold adjustment implant step is separately masked, the active pixel sensor of the present invention can be manufactured with no additional masking requirements. In one embodiment, a low threshold voltage (V.sub.TN) allows a transistor acting as a reset switch to operate in the linear region, and allowing the reset switch transistor to share a common supply voltage source with a readout amplifier transistor.
Source: selected by the editor from original sources.

Invention: CMOS active pixel sensor using native transistors