Analysis and optimization of the asynchronous modulated light detection pixel

Detection of modulated light signals transmitted by active image markers can be used in object localization tasks and machine vision applications. The asynchronous demodulation pixel is able to detect the signal transmitted by these modulated markers. The modulated marker position in a two-dimensional pixel array can be used to identify the marker location in the field. In this paper the asynchronous demodulation pixel is analyzed and its operation is investigated in the presence of non-ideal effects such as parasitic elements, device mismatches and process variations. The effect of demodulator bias conditions and different switch pulsing techniques are examined and a modified demodulator controlling method is presented to increase the dynamic range and sensitivity of the pixel compared with the common operation schemes. The different demodulator structures are also simulated as 64 × 64 pixel array sensors using a 0.18 μm standard CMOS process and their operation is compared regarding sensitivity, filter transfer function, pixel size and power consumption.