Sandor L. BarnaOne key to customer acceptance of CMOS imagers in the mobile market space is low-light performance. This is often specified in terms of the lowest light level at which the sensor produces an image with a minimally "acceptable" signal-to-noise ratio. This value is highly customer- and application-dependent, with high-end digital still cameras requiring better performance than low-end video cameras. In enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio, the designer rarely has the opportunity to improve the input signal level. 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