- published: 10 Mar 2010
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An active-pixel sensor (APS) is an image sensor consisting of an integrated circuit containing an array of pixel sensors, each pixel containing a photodetector and an active amplifier. There are many types of active pixel sensors including the CMOS APS used most commonly in cell phone cameras, web cameras and in some DSLRs. Such an image sensor is produced by a CMOS process (and is hence also known as a CMOS sensor), and has emerged as an alternative to charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensors.
The term active pixel sensor is also used to refer to the individual pixel sensor itself, as opposed to the image sensor; in that case the image sensor is sometimes called an active pixel sensor imager,active-pixel image sensor, or active-pixel-sensor (APS) imager.
The term active pixel sensor was coined by Tsutomu Nakamura who worked on the Charge Modulation Device active pixel sensor at Olympus, and more broadly defined by Eric Fossum in a 1993 paper.