Instructor: Richard D. Crisp, Etron Technology America
Level: Introductory
Prerequisites: Basic electronics and moderate familiarization with electronic imaging

Benefits:
This course enables the attendee to:

• Explain how CMOS image sensors convert light to images.
• Understand five examples of noise sources in images and options for mitigation.
• Dissect an imaging system’s key performance parameters by measurement.
• Analyze cost tradeoffs for a camera design involving sensor size, optics, frame rate, etc.
• Break down the steps of system design: selecting sensor architecture, pixel size, pixel count, and optics.
• Design an imaging system starting with specification requirements.

Course Description:
Topics include:

• Basics of image capture/formation: system performance evaluation / optimization, design tradeoffs / example calculations for key design parameters for a networked video camera system.
• Sensor architectures and operation CMOS: rolling shutter and global snap shutter, CCDs; full frame, frame transfer, interline.
• Sensor/camera performance characterization, noise sources, and noise management.
• Cost considerations: sensor size, frame rate, imaging optics, shuttering, cooling.
• System design considerations: tradeoffs among pixel architecture, pixel count, frame rate, pixel bit depth, sensor data bandwidth, electrical interfaces, frame buffering, and network interface bandwidth.
• Examples of top-down system design approach: matching a camera to a target; specifying sensor type, pixel size, field of view, lens focal length/focal ratio, frame rate/exposure time, video vs. still, sample design calculations.

Intended Audience: Design, development, and system engineers tasked with camera / imaging system design / usage. Assume basic understanding of electronics and semiconductor devices.

Richard D. Crisp is currently vice president of new technology development and chief scientist for Etron America, where he is engaged in developing low-cost DRAM architectures for miniaturized imaging systems. Crisp has designed imaging systems, CPUS, memories, and miniaturized semiconductor packaging. He has worked for Intel, Motorola, MIPS, Rambus, Tessera, and Etron, and has received more than 107 patents for his work. He was a member of the ISSCC Program Committee from 1991 – 2000. serving as the program committee chair in 2000, vice chair in 1999, and memory subcommittee chair in 1997-98. He has published many peer-reviewed papers in journals and conferences such as the ISSCC, IEEE JSSC, SPIE Electronic Imaging, ISMP, ICEP and IS&T, including recent work published in the area of using photon transfer methods to quantify thermally dependent image lag in cooled scientific imaging systems.  Crisp is also an astro-photographer with many published images, including with the OSA, Smithsonian, and Space Telescope Science Institute.