This research developed the first CMOS camera capable of operating at a sustained 10,000 frames per second - ten times faster than the fastest such camera of its day. This was achieved by incorporating a complete analog to digital converter per pixel - the first of its kind. Every pixel was converted to digital fully in parallel, in approximately 2.5 microseconds, followed by purely digital readout at about 1.3 gigabytes per second. The photo above was taken at 1,000 frames per second. The four photos below, of a model airplane propeller rotating past a resolution chart, were taken at 10,000 frames per second, with every 10’th frame being shown.

Related publications:

1. •[J36] S. Kleinfelder, S. Lim, X. Liu, A. El Gamal, “A 10,000 Frames/s CMOS Digital Pixel Sensor,” IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits, Volume 36, Issue 12, Dec. 2001 (invited paper).
   

2. •[C35] S. Kleinfelder, S. Lim, X. Liu, A. El Gamal, “A 10 kFrames/s 0.18 μm CMOS Digital Pixel Sensor with Pixel-Level Memory,” International Solid State Circuits Conference, 2001. Digest of Technical Papers. IEEE International, no. 435, pages 88-89, 2001.
   

3. •[C34] H. Tian, X. Liu, S. Lim, S. Kleinfelder, A. El Gamal, “Active Pixel Sensors Fabricated in a Standard 0.18 m CMOS Technology,” Proceedings of the SPIE, Electronic Imaging 2001, Vol. 4306, San Jose, CA, January 2001.
   

4. •[C33] S. Kleinfelder, A. Hottes, R. F. W. Pease, “Focal Plane Array Readout Integrated Circuit With Per-Pixel Analog-To-Digital And Digital-To-Analog Conversion,” Proceedings of the SPIE, Infrared Detectors and Focal Plane Arrays VI, Vol. 4028, 2000.