Summary: | This paper presents newly developed two high-precision CMOS proximity capacitance image sensors: Chip A with 12 μm pitch pixels with a large detection area of 1.68 cm<sup>2</sup>; Chip B with 2.8 μm pitch 1.8 M pixels for a higher resolution. Both fabricated chips achieved a capacitance detection precision of less than 100 zF (10<sup>−19</sup> F) at an input voltage of 20 V and less than 10 zF (10<sup>−20</sup> F) at 300 V due to the noise cancelling technique. Furthermore, by using multiple input pulse amplitudes, a capacitance detection dynamic range of up to 123 dB was achieved. The spatial resolution improvement was confirmed by the experimentally obtained modulation transfer function for Chip B with various line and space pattens. The examples of capacitance imaging using the fabricated chips were also demonstrated.
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