SPIE Electronic Imaging 2011 Conference published its Advance Program. As every year, there is a nice image sensor paper collection:
In this paper the resolution is missing to do a meaningful comparison, but frame rate is impressive nevertheless:
A prototype high-speed CMOS image sensor with 10,000,000 burst-frame rate and 10,000 continuous-frame rate
Yasuhisa Tochigi, Katsuhiko Hanzawa, Yuri Kato, Nana Akahane, Rihito Kuroda, Shigetoshi Sugawa, Tohoku Univ. (Japan)
This paper looks like a nice cooperation between supplier and customer:
Comparison of objective metrics for image sensor crosstalk characterization
Sergey F. Prokushkin, Changmeng Liu, Aptina Imaging Corp. (United States); Henrik Eliasson, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB (Sweden)
This is another hot topic related to low-light sensitivity improvement:
Characterization of pixel crosstalk and impact of Bayer patterning by quantum efficiency measurement
Jérôme Vaillant, STMicroelectronics (France); Clemence Mornet, STMicroelectronics (France) and IMEP (France); Thomas Decroux, Didier Hérault, STMicroelectronics (France); Isabelle Schanen, IMEP (France).
Mobile phone imaging module with extended depth of focus based on axial irradiance equalization phase coding
Hsin-Yueh Sung, National Tsing Hua Univ. (Taiwan); Po-Chang Chen, Chuan-Chung Chang, Chir-Weei Chang, Industrial Technology Research Institute (Taiwan); Sidney S. Yang, National Tsing Hua Univ. (Taiwan); Horng Chang, Industrial Technology Research Institute (Taiwan)
Performance of extended depth of field systems and theoretical diffraction limit
Nicolas Bachelard, Frédéric Guichard, DxO Labs (France)
Intriguing title, is this something new or re-iteration of known ideas:
Implementation of a multispectral color imaging device without color filter array
Giacomo Langfelder, Antonio F. Longoni, Federico Zaraga, Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
HDR imaging is well represented too:
Dynamic range extension of a CMOS active pixel sensor by in-pixel charge mixing
Sung-Hyun Jo, Jae-Sung Kong, Jang-Kyoo Shin, Kyungpook National Univ. (Korea)
A novel 3D architecture for high dynamic range image sensor and on-chip data compression
Guezzi M. Fadoua, Lab. d’Electronique de Technologie de l’Information (France); Antoine Dupret, Ecole Supérieure d’Ingénieurs en Electronique et Electrotechnique (France); Arnaud Peizerat, Lab. d’Electronique de Technologie de l’Information (France); Yves Blanchard, Ecole Supérieure d’Ingénieurs en Electronique et Electrotechnique (France)
This one sounds like Foveon, but neither Foveon nor Sigma is in the authors list:
Optimizing quantum efficiency in a stacked CMOS sensor
Robert S. Hannebauer, Lumiense Photonics, Inc. (Canada); Sang-Keun Yoo, HanVision Co. Ltd (Korea); David L. Gilblom, Alexander D. Gilblom, Alternative Vision Corp. (United States)
Interest to photogate pixels seems never die:
Simulating enhanced photo carrier collection in the multifinger photogate active pixel sensors
Phanindra V. R. Kalyanam, Glenn H. Chapman, Ash M. Parameswaran, Simon Fraser Univ. (Canada).
e2v presents its big CCDs:
Detailed characterisation of a new large area CCD manufactured on high resistivity silicon
Reliability theme is presented too:
Aging effects on image sensors due to terrestrial cosmic radiation
Gayathri Gangadharan Nampoothiri, Albert Theuwissen, Technische Univ. Delft (Netherlands); Marc Horemans, Consultant (Belgium).
Tradeoffs in imager design parameters for sensor reliability
Glenn H. Chapman, Jenny Leung, Simon Fraser Univ. (Canada); Zahava Koren, Israel Koren, Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst (United States)
A rare article on quite common phenomenon:
Nonlinear time dependence of dark current in charge-coupled devices
Ralf Widenhorn, Justin Dunlap, Erik Bodegom, Portland State Univ. (United States), Mark S. Robbins, Pritesh Mistry, Paul Jorden, e2v technologies plc (United Kingdom).
Negative Tx gate bias becomes quite common, now Toshiba presents it:
Dark noise in a CMOS imager pixel with negative bias on transfer gate
Hirofumi Yamashita, Motohiro Maeda, Shogo Furuya, Takanori Yagami, Toshiba Materials Co., Ltd.
The following two sound like fun educational lectures:
Image sensor noise: you love it or you hate it!
Albert J. P. Theuwissen, Harvest Imaging (Belgium).
The early history of CCDs (Invited Paper)
Morley M. Blouke, Portland State Univ. (United States).
Italian single photon detection is here:
3D ranging with a single-photon imaging array
Simone Bellisai, Fabrizio Guerrieri, Politecnico di Milano (Italy); Simone Tisa, Micro Photon Devices S.r.l. (Italy); Franco Zappa, Politecnico di Milano (Italy) and Micro Photon Devices S.r.l. (Italy)
Monolithic single-photon detectors and time-to-digital converters for picoseconds time-of-flight ranging
Bojan Markovic, Politecnico di Milano (Italy); Simone Tisa, Micro Photon Devices S.r.l. (Italy); Alberto Tosi, Franco Zappa, Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
3D ToF cameras and sensors are well represented:
Harmonic distortion free distance estimation in ToF camera
Byongmin Kang, Seong-Jin Kim, Keechang Lee, James D. K. Kim, Chang-Yeong Kim, Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (Korea)
Low cost characterization of TOF range sensors resolution
Gabriele Guidi, Michele Russo, Grazia Magrassi, Monica Bordegoni, Politecnico di Milano (Italy).
Introducing the depth transfer curve for 3D capture system characterization
Kalin Atanassov, Vikas Ramachandra, Sergio R. Goma, Qualcomm Inc. (United States).
There many more interesting papers, just too many to post them all here. The conference is well worth attending.