Difference between MIG and IG

There is often confusion about how Modified Internal Gate (MIG) technology differentiates from Internal Gate (IG) technology. We prepared a video presentation about the two technologies where we present the challenges found in IG imagers and how MIG imagers overcome them. The video is targeted to technical audience — enjoy!

Charge Transfer in Double MIG Pixel

The Non-Destructive Correlated Double Sampling (NDCDS) is enabled by the ability to transfer signal charge continuously between two MIGs. Below is a video which demonstrates how charge can be transferred in a basic double MIG pixel. Both simulation and measurement results are shown. The measurement is taken from a single pixel test structure which don’t include any additional read-out circuitry.

Note that the y-axis in the measurement data is voltage and the x-axis is time. The higher the measurement signal is the more there are electrons in the corresponding MIG. If you have any questions about the video please feel free to post a comment.

1T MIG Pixel

We think that future image sensor pixels should be more simple and elegant and that they should offer better performance than is possible today. The present 4T CMOS pixel has been pushed towards its limits and yet the image quality should be improved. New approaches are needed to overcome the challenges in today’s technologies.