Mondo Knows Facts

Every pixel got its own amplifier in 1993

Eric Fossum's active pixel design put a transistor inside each cell, so cheap CMOS factories could make cameras A CCD moves every pixel's charge across the chip to one output, which takes power and limits readout speed. In an active pixel sensor each cell converts charge to a voltage on the spot, so ordinary CMOS lines can build the chip. Fossum developed the idea at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and it now sits in nearly every phone camera. It sits in Mondo's technology collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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Tags: sensors, cameras, cmos

Every pixel got its own amplifier in 1993: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
Eric Fossum's active pixel design put a transistor inside each cell, so cheap CMOS factories could make cameras. The figure is taken from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a technology fact?
Yes. It sits on the Technology shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?
The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.