Virtual prototyping of CMOS image sensor camera

Abstract

This poster describes a new end-to-end virtual prototype solution we have developed for simulating the performances of the whole system of a CMOS Image Sensor Camera from the imaging lens system to the final image, through the optoelectronic sensor itself. Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) software is used to simulate how much light is absorbed by the CMOS sensor structure and the diffraction effects throughout the micro-lenses and pixels. 3D Charge Transport Solver is used to compute the probability to capture a photogenerated charge and get the quantum efficiency as a function of the incident angles, wavelengths, and pixel position. Finally, we combine light exposure onto the sensor from 3D environment raytracing software with quantum efficiency from photonics simulations to generate raw images and compute the final image.