The inventor of CMOS

Since most sensors these days depend on CMOS tech. we should be more than interested in this article about DPReview member Eric Fossum:

www.dpreview.com/articles/1014662014/inventor-cmos-sensor-eric-fossum-science-space-metaphysical-photons

Podcast here:

www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/podcasts/photography/camera-on-a-chip-eric-fossums-invention-of-the-cmos-image-sensor

"modern cmos sensor" cmos circuits and photo transistors were invented 30 years before.

<dupe deleted>

<deleted after reading subsequent posts by others>

Hi,

Exactly.

CMOS was used in many components well before there was even a CCD image sensor. Back when the electronic image component was still a vacuum tube, a Vidicon, CMOS components were used inside the television cameras as well.

It was all a progression. Flying spot scanners to Vidicons to CCD to CMOS.

Stan

CMOS came out of Fairchild R&D Labs, later known as Fairchild Semiconductor in 1963. Fairchild developed the process to produce these types of
transistors and patented the term CMOS.

www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/complementary-mos-circuit-configuration-is-invented/#:~:text=In%20a%201963%20conference%20paper,that%20today%20is%20called%20CMOS.

It was developed for applications in the defense and aerospace industry. By the mid 1970's it had found its way into
many consumer applications. BTW Fairchild R&D Labs was started by Gordon Moore who later left and formed Intel with
funding from Fairchild Camera and Instrument and its owner Sherman Fairchild.

While Fairchild developed the first process to fab CMOS components, the theory behind the CMOS transistor goes back to the late 1940's.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMOS

The advantage of CMOS image sensors is all the circuitry necessary to transform the light gathered by the photon detectors is on the sensor chip. A secondary chip is not required. CMOS is low power and produces little heat. With a CCD, the charged is marched off the chip to a second chip that does the amplification and conditioning, analogue to digital conversion and quantization. CMOS gives a one chip solution. CCD's are power hungry and produce more heat which is why in many applications CCD sensors are cooled.

However, for many applications that require high sensitivity and low noise, CCD sensors are used over CMOS. For example the sensors in both the Hubble and James Webb telescopes are CCD. The other problem with CMOS is CMOS susceptible to degradation by ionizing radiation (X-rays and Gamma rays). That limits the utility of CMOS in space applications.

Fossum's contribution was the use of CMOS as an image sensor, AFAIK. I used to specify/buy CMOS logic chips long before that.

Thank god for google hey 🤔 ive been into electronics since i was 15, worked for apple as a systems designer in the 80s 😁 made IBM look like a kindergarten company. shame companies were to stupid to not invest, they had lost all there money to IBM systems and weren't game to give apple a go.

MRP i cant disclose. due to contracts signed. i was told some of my programs were in operation for 20 years, i left the industry from having a massive breakdown. have never returned.