Image sensor

An electronic device that converts incoming light into electrical signals for image capture. Its photosensitive elements record spatial patterns of light as image data.

Charge-coupled device: A semiconductor image sensor that transfers accumulated electrical charge across the chip to a readout circuit. Its serial charge transfer is one of the two defining ways an image sensor reads pixels.
Pixel: A discrete picture element represented by a value or set of values in a digital image. Each photosite contributes measurements that are organized into image pixels.
Back-illuminated sensor: A semiconductor image sensor arranged so incoming light reaches photosensitive regions from the substrate's back side. Its optical layout reduces obstruction by wiring and can improve light collection.
Digital camera: A camera that captures images using an electronic image sensor and stores them in digital form. Its image quality depends on sensor area, pixel design, and readout performance.
Active-pixel sensor: An image sensor whose pixels contain transistors that convert and read each pixel's accumulated charge. Its local pixel circuitry underlies the dominant CMOS sensor architecture.
Bayer filter: A color filter array that places red, green, and blue filters over individual sensor photosites in a repeating pattern. It lets a single-layer sensor estimate color from filtered light measurements.
Stacked image sensor: An image sensor built from vertically joined semiconductor layers, often separating photodiodes from processing circuitry. Stacking enables dense circuitry and faster readout without placing all functions beside photosites.
Smartphone camera: A compact camera system integrated into a mobile phone, typically combining a small sensor with a lens and image processing. Its small sensor makes sensitivity, optics, and computational processing especially interdependent.
Photodiode: A semiconductor device that converts incident light into electrical current or charge. Photodiodes form the light-sensitive elements in most digital image sensors.
Demosaicing: The process of estimating full-color image values from color-filtered samples in a mosaic. It reconstructs color channels from the sparse samples recorded by a Bayer-filtered sensor.

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