A 1.5Mpixel RGBZ CMOS image sensor for simultaneous color and range image capture

A 1.5Mpixel RGBZ image sensor that simultaneously captures color (RGB) and time-of-flight (ToF) range (Z) images is presented. While ToF sensors are well documented, few, if any, monolithic sensors have been reported that capture both range and color. In one sensor, a combined pixel structure captures color and range, but presumably in sequential fields. This approach does not allow simultaneous capturing of range with color, and the pixel performance cannot be optimized for each mode. In thie paper, we introduce a sensor that is designed to capture color and range simultaneously with individually optimized pixels.