# A 5000 Fps, 4 Megapixel, Radiation-Tolerant, Wafer-Scale CMOS Image Sensor for the Direct Detection of Electrons and Photons

**Authors:** Andrew Scott, Claus Bauzà, Adrià Bofill-Petit, Albert Font, Mireia Gargallo, Robert Gifreu, Kamran Latif, Armand Mollà Garcia, Michele Sannino, Renato Turchetta

PMC · DOI: 10.3390/s26020370 · Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026-01-06

## TL;DR

A high-speed, radiation-tolerant CMOS image sensor is developed for detecting electrons and photons at 5000 fps with 4 megapixel resolution.

## Contribution

The paper introduces a novel wafer-scale CMOS image sensor optimized for direct electron detection with high frame rates and resolution.

## Key findings

- The sensor achieves over 5000 frames per second at full 4.2-megapixel resolution.
- It features column-parallel PGA and ADC architecture with 24,624 ADCs for high-speed data transmission.
- The sensor is suitable for high-speed applications like wavefront sensing due to its design and performance.

## Abstract

We present the design and characterisation of a 4.2-megapixel, wafer-scale CMOS image sensor, achieving over 5000 frames per second at full resolution. The sensor has a pixel pitch of 58 µm square pixels, thus being as large as a full 200 mm wafer. The sensor is read out on two sides and features column-parallel programmable gain amplifiers (PGAs) as well as analogue-to-digital converters (ADCs). The array has 2052 columns and 2064 rows; 12 rows are read in parallel, so that the total number of ADCs is 24,624. The data is transmitted through 216 sub-LVDS lanes running at 1 Gbps in double data rate (DDR). Besides the row and column control, the sensor generates the necessary voltages and currents on a chip. The programming is performed through a serial-to-parallel interface (SPI). The sensor was optimised for direct detection of electrons, but it can also detect photons. Thus, it could be a good candidate for applications where high speed is needed, such as wavefront sensing.

## Full text

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## Figures

20 figures with captions in the complete paper: https://tomesphere.com/paper/PMC12846052/full.md

## References

22 references — full list in the complete paper: https://tomesphere.com/paper/PMC12846052/full.md

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Source: https://tomesphere.com/paper/PMC12846052