High Dynamic Range CMOS Imager Technologies for Biomedical Applications

Apart from the ongoing debate about using CMOS active pixel sensors (APS) or CCD imagers for today's consumer and commercial applications the emerging biomedical market presents new opportunities to CMOS APS. Logarithmic response high-dynamic range CMOS (HDRC) cells are the preferred photosensitive circuits for building sensors with contrast and not with illumination dominated outputs. Prominent examples addressing distinct issues in life style and health care are the possibilities to restore vision through a sub-retinal CMOS imager implant and to fabricate a low-cost intracorporeal video probe through a miniature CMOS imager. The sub-retinal imager chip presented here is the first implanted into the eye of a blind human patient with partial restoring of vision.