New Charge-coupled Devices and Circuits for Analog Vlsi Focal-plane Image Processing

It has been remarked that CCD circuits, unlike transistor circuits, must A new approach to designing low-power, be monolithically integrated to function. compact, charge-coupled device (CCD), Unfortunately, confinement of the signal analog, VLSI circuits for signal charge to the semiconductor inhibits the processing is described. A charge domain implementation of circuit topologies in wire transfer circuit allows the coupling which signal lines cross, a major of CCO circuits through the use of a limitation. Furthermore, such intimate metallic wire. The approach trades charge integration makes a building block transfer efficiency for design approach to circuit design difficult to simplicity. The impact of wire transfer achieve. This paper describes a technique on CCO circuit design is addressed. to relieve this constraint and allow a Charge-coupled computing circuit building building block design methodolgy. The blocks are discussed. Circuits utilizing technique, called wire transfer, is a wire transfer are described and include a hybridization of CCD and bucket brigade general purpose charge-coupled computer, charge transfer, and permits the an A/O converter, a O/A converter, and a topological crossing of signal lines and a focal-plane image processor chip. building block approach to CCD design.