Spectrally reconfigurable pixels for dual-color-mode imaging sensors

The use of full color-sensitive photodetectors with three electrically tunable spectral responses allows the design of sensors that can be real-time reconfigured for different color acquisition modes. All the (physically identical) pixels can be biased in the same way, each giving the same set of RGB spectral responses: in this situation the conversion from the sensor color space to a reference color space can be implemented as usual, giving typical color errors ΔE(a,b) in the order of 2-3. Alternatively, pixels can be biased in two different ways (e.g., row by row), forming pairs: by joining the information from adjacent pixels, the sensor has six spectral responses, with a reduced resolution. By exploiting this plurality of spectral responses, color reproduction accuracy can be increased. In this work, an improved design of the Transverse Field Detector, a filterless and tunable three-color pixel, is used as the experimental device to propose a dual-color-mode reconfigurable sensor.