Analysis of Pixel Noise in Dynamic Vision Sensors

To date, pixel noise in a dynamic vision sensor (DVS) has not been accurately analyzed in the literature, and its optimization has been performed empirically. This paper presents a theoretical analysis of the DVS pixel noise. The mean-squared noise voltage at the pixel output from each noise source in a pixel is mathematically derived and verified based on simulations and measurements. A design method to determine the pixel bias currents for a given photocurrent is also presented based on the noise analysis to improve noise performance while maintaining pixel latency. A prototype DVS chip was fabricated in a 110 nm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor image sensor process and tested under various light and pixel bias conditions. It is shown that the proposed noise analysis and design method successfully predicted the noise performance of the DVS chip.