Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080211943 | SOLID-STATE IMAGE PICKUP DEVICE - In a pixel unit, cells are arranged in rows and columns two-dimensionally. Each of the cells accumulates signal charge obtained by photoelectrically converting light incident on photoelectric conversion section and outputs a voltage corresponding to the accumulated signal charge. On the cells, W, R, G, and B color filters are provided. Analog signals output from the W pixel, R pixel, G pixel, and B pixel are converted into digital signals by an analog/digital converter circuit, which outputs a W signal, an R signal, a G signal, and a B signal separately. A W signal saturated signal quantity is controlled by a saturated signal quantity control circuit. Then, a signal generator circuit corrects the R signal, the G signal, and the B signal using the W signal, the R signal, the G signal, and B signal output from the analog/digital converter circuit and outputs the corrected R, G, and B signals. | 09-04-2008 |
20080267040 | TWO-DIMENSIONAL DIGITAL DATA ACQUISITION ELEMENT AND HOLOGRAPHIC STORAGE APPARATUS - A two-dimensional digital data acquisition element includes: a pixel area having a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix form, each of the pixels having a photoelectric conversion element to convert the reproduced light from the optical information recording medium to an electric signal; selection circuits which select the pixel; a readout circuit which reads out an electric signal of a pixel selected by the selection circuits; and a 1-bit AD converter which converts an output of the readout circuit to 1-bit digital data. A pitch ratio N between a pitch P1 of the unit data areas in the two-dimensional digital image information and a pitch P | 10-30-2008 |
20090027534 | IMAGE PICKUP DEVICE - An image pickup device has a signal processing part configured to perform signal process for the first to third color signals. The signal processing part includes a first color generator configured to generate a fourth color signal corresponding to a reference pixel based on a ratio between a second color signal at a pixel located in vicinity of the reference pixel and a first color signal at a pixel located in vicinity of the reference pixel, a second color generator configured to generate a fifth color signal corresponding to the reference pixel based on a ratio between a third color signal at a pixel located in vicinity of the reference pixel and the first color signal at a pixel located in vicinity of the reference pixel, and a image quality converter configured to generate color signals by performing a predetermined image process based on the first to fifth color signals. | 01-29-2009 |
20090095909 | BOLOMETER TYPE UNCOOLED INFRARED RAY SENSOR AND METHOD FOR DRIVING THE SAME - A bolometer type uncooled infrared ray sensor includes: an image pickup region having detection pixels arranged in a matrix form on a semiconductor substrate to detect incident infrared rays; a plurality of row selection lines provided in the image pickup region; current sources capable of letting constant currents flow through the respective row selection lines; a plurality of signal lines provided in the image pickup region; voltage readout circuits provided so as to respectively correspond to the signal lines to read out signal voltages generated on the respectively corresponding signal lines; coupling capacitances respectively provided between the respective signal lines and the corresponding voltage readout circuits; and a calculator which calculates a difference between two signal voltages read out by the voltage readout circuits, corresponding to outputs of the same detection pixel for two different current values supplied from the current sources. | 04-16-2009 |
20090236526 | INFRARED RAY SENSOR ELEMENT - An infrared ray sensor element includes: a first signal wiring part including a first signal wire and provided on a first region of a semiconductor substrate different from a region on which a concave part is provided; a second signal wiring part including a second signal wire and provided on the first region so as to intersect the first signal wiring part; a supporter including a support wiring part disposed over the concave part, and including a first wire electrically connected at a first end thereof to the first signal wire, and a second wire insulated from the first wire, disposed in parallel with the first wire, and electrically connected at a first end thereof to the second signal wire; a thermoelectric transducer electrically connected to second ends of the first and second wires; an infrared ray absorption layer provided over the thermoelectric transducer; and a detection cell provided over the concave part. | 09-24-2009 |
20090242951 | SOLID-STATE IMAGE PICKUP DEVICE - A solid-state image pickup device has a photoelectric conversion element that converts light incident from a first surface of a substrate into a signal charge and accumulates the signal charge, a transistor that is formed on a second surface side opposite to the first surface of the substrate and reads out the signal charge accumulated by the photoelectric conversion element, a supporting substrate stuck to the second surface of the substrate, and an antireflection coating formed on the first surface of the substrate, wherein the first surface of the substrate includes a curved surface or an inclined surface forming a prescribed angle to the second surface. | 10-01-2009 |
20090266987 | INFRARED DETECTOR AND SOLID STATE IMAGE SENSOR HAVING THE SAME - An infrared detector includes: a readout wiring portion provided on a semiconductor substrate; a support structure portion disposed over a concave portion formed in a surface portion of the semiconductor substrate, the support structure portion having connection wiring connected electrically to the readout wiring portion; and a cell portion disposed over the concave portion and supported by the support structure portion. The cell portion includes: an infrared absorption layer absorbing incident infrared rays; and a plurality of thermoelectric conversion elements connected electrically to the support structure portion and insulated electrically from the infrared absorption layer to generate an electric signal by detecting a temperature change of the cell portion, each of the thermoelectric conversion elements includes a semiconductor layer, a p-type silicon layer and an n-type silicon layer formed with a space between them in the semiconductor layer, and a polysilicon layer formed on the semiconductor layer between the p-type silicon layer and the n-type silicon layer. | 10-29-2009 |
20100025584 | IMAGE SENSOR AND MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREOF - An image sensor includes a semiconductor substrate; first pixels laid out above cavities provided within the semiconductor substrate, the first pixels converting thermal energy generated by incident light into an electric signal; supporting parts connected between the first pixels and the semiconductor substrate, the supporting parts supporting the first pixels above the cavities; and second pixels fixedly provided on the semiconductor substrate without via the cavities, wherein a plurality of the first pixels and a plurality of the second pixels are laid out two-dimensionally to form a pixel region, and each of the second pixels is adjacent to the first pixels. | 02-04-2010 |
20100230594 | INFRARED SOLID-STATE IMAGE SENSOR - An infrared solid-state image sensor comprises: a pixel area comprising a sensitive pixel area where infrared detection pixels are arranged in a matrix form to detect incident infrared rays on the semiconductor substrate and a reference pixel area where reference pixels are provided, each of the infrared detection pixels comprising a thermoelectric conversion part, the thermoelectric conversion part comprising an infrared absorption film to absorb the incident infrared rays and convert the incident infrared rays to heat and a first thermoelectric conversion element to convert the heat obtained by the conversion in the infrared absorption film to a electric signal, each of the reference pixels comprising a second thermoelectric conversion element. Each of first ends of the reference pixels are connected to a reference potential line, and a difference between the signal potential read out from a corresponding signal line and a reference potential supplied from the reference potential line is amplified and outputted. | 09-16-2010 |
20110226953 | SOLID-STATE IMAGING ELEMENT - It is possible to quickly and readily determine the location of an object. A solid-state imaging element according to an embodiment includes: at least two infrared detectors formed on a semiconductor substrate; an electric interconnect configured to connect the at least two infrared detectors in series; and a comparator unit configured to compare an intermediate voltage of the electric interconnect connecting the infrared detectors in series, with a predetermined reference voltage. | 09-22-2011 |
20120007205 | INFRARED IMAGING DEVICE AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING THE SAME - Certain embodiments provide an infrared imaging device including: an SOI structure that is placed at a distance from a substrate, and includes: heat-sensitive diodes that detect infrared rays and convert the infrared rays into heat; and STI regions that separate the heat-sensitive diodes from one another; an interlayer insulating film that is stacked on the SOI structure; and supporting legs that are connected to the heat-sensitive diodes and vertical signal lines provided in outer peripheral regions of the heat-sensitive diodes. Each of the supporting legs includes: an interconnect unit that transmit signals to the vertical signal lines; and interlayer insulating layers that sandwich the interconnect unit, each bottom side of the interlayer insulating layers being located in a higher position than the SOI structure. | 01-12-2012 |
20120119088 | INFRARED IMAGING DEVICE - An infrared imaging device according to an embodiment includes: an imaging area formed on a semiconductor substrate, the imaging area having a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix form, the plurality of pixels including a plurality of reference pixels arranged in at least one row and a plurality of infrared detection pixels arranged in remaining rows to detect incident infrared rays, each of the reference pixels having a first thermoelectric conversion element, each of the infrared detection pixel having a thermoelectric conversion unit, the thermoelectric conversion unit having an infrared absorption film to absorb the incident infrared rays and convert the incident infrared rays to heat and a second thermoelectric conversion element to convert the heat obtained by the conversion conducted by the infrared absorption film to an electric signal. | 05-17-2012 |
20120228497 | INFRARED IMAGING ELEMENT - An infrared imaging element according to an embodiment includes: a semiconductor substrate including a stacked structure of a silicon first substrate, and a first insulation film, first cavities being provided on a surface of the first substrate; an infrared detection unit provided in the semiconductor substrate and including, detection cells provided respectively over the first cavities, each of the detection cells having diodes and a second insulation film, the first insulation film converting incident infrared rays to heat, the diodes converting the heat obtained by the first insulation film to an electric signal, a third insulation film having a top face located at a greater distance from the semiconductor substrate as compared with a top face of the second insulation film; and a second substrate provided over the third insulation film. A second cavity is formed between the second substrate and the infrared detection unit. | 09-13-2012 |
20120241613 | INFRARED IMAGING DEVICE AND INFRARED IMAGING APPARATUS USING IT - One embodiment provides an infrared imaging device, including: a substrate; connection wiring portions arranged in matrix form on the substrate; a first infrared detecting portion configured to convert intensity of absorbed infrared radiation into a first signal; and a second infrared detecting portion configured to convert intensity of absorbed infrared radiation into a second signal, the second infrared detecting portion being larger in thermal conductance than the first infrared detecting portion. | 09-27-2012 |
20130093902 | INFRARED SOLID STATE IMAGING DEVICE - An infrared solid state imaging device includes an infrared detection element unit having heat sensitive pixels, an AD conversion unit which conducts analog-to-digital conversion on an infrared image signal obtained by the infrared detection element unit, and a digital signal processing unit which converts the image signal converted to a digital signal. The digital signal processing unit stores an image value produced from the digital signal, and acquired in a frame immediately preceding a current frame, subtracts an image value obtained by multiplying the image value acquired in the frame immediately preceding the current frame by a predetermined constant α in a range of 0 to 1, from an image value acquired in the current frame, and conducts processing of multiplying a resultant image value obtained by the subtraction by 1/(1−α) so that an infrared image with less afterimage is provided. | 04-18-2013 |
20130240709 | SOLID-STATE IMAGING DEVICE AND PORTABLE INFORMATION TERMINAL - A solid-state imaging device according to an embodiment includes: an imaging element including a semiconductor substrate and a plurality of pixel blocks, each of the pixel blocks including at least two of R pixels, G pixels, B pixels, and W pixels; a first optical system configured to form an image of an object on an imaging plane; and a second optical system including a microlens array having a plurality of microlenses provided for the respective pixels blocks, the second optical system being located between the imaging element and the first optical system, the second optical system being configured to reduce and re-image the image formed on the imaging plane onto each of the pixel blocks. A proportion of the W pixels to be provided increases in a direction from a center of each pixel block toward an outer periphery thereof. | 09-19-2013 |
20130242161 | SOLID-STATE IMAGING DEVICE AND PORTABLE INFORMATION TERMINAL - A solid-state imaging device according to an embodiment includes: an imaging element including a plurality of pixel blocks each containing a plurality of pixels; a first optical system forming an image of an object on an imaging plane; and a second optical system including a microlens array, the microlens array including a light transmissive substrate, a plurality of first microlenses formed on the light transmissive substrate, and a plurality of second microlenses formed around the first microlenses, a focal length of the first microlenses being substantially equal to a focal length of the second microlenses, an area of the first microlenses in contact with the light transmissive substrate being larger than an area of the second microlenses in contact with the light transmissive substrate, the second optical system being configured to reduce and reconstruct the image formed on the imaging plane on the pixel blocks via the microlens array. | 09-19-2013 |
20130248714 | UNCOOLED INFRARED IMAGING DEVICE - An uncooled infrared imaging device according to an embodiment includes: reference pixels formed on a semiconductor substrate and arranged in at least one row; and infrared detection pixels arranged in the remaining rows and detecting incident infrared rays. Each of the reference pixels includes a first cell located above a first concave portion. The first cell includes a first thermoelectric conversion unit having a first infrared absorption film; and a first thermoelectric conversion element. Each of the infrared detection pixels includes a second cell located above a second concave portion, and having a larger area than the first cell. The second cell includes: a second thermoelectric converting unit located above the second concave portion; and first and second supporting structure units supporting the second thermoelectric converting unit above the second concave portion. The second thermoelectric converting unit includes: a second infrared absorption film; and a second thermoelectric conversion element. | 09-26-2013 |
20140131553 | SOLID-STATE IMAGING DEVICE - A solid-state imaging device according to an embodiment includes: an imaging element including an imaging area formed with a plurality of pixel blocks each including pixels; a first optical system forming an image of an object on an imaging surface; and a second optical system re-forming the image, which has been formed on the imaging surface, on the pixel blocks corresponding to microlenses, the second optical system including a microlens array formed with the microlenses provided in accordance with the pixel blocks. The microlenses are arranged in such a manner that an angle θ between a straight line connecting center points of adjacent microlenses and one of a row direction and a column direction in which the pixels are aligned is expressed as follows: θ>sin | 05-15-2014 |
20140132279 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR INSPECTING INFRARED SOLID-STATE IMAGE SENSOR - An apparatus includes: a current control unit to control an amount of constant current and supply a first and second constant currents to an infrared detection pixel; a constant current supply time control unit to control periods of time in which the first and second constant currents are supplied to the infrared detection pixel; an A-D converter to convert a first and second electrical signals from the infrared detection pixel into a first and second digital signals, the first and second electrical signals being generated when the first and second constant currents is supplied to the infrared detection pixel, respectively; a subtracting unit to calculate a difference between the first and second digital signals; and a determining unit to determine whether the infrared detection pixel is a defective pixel based on the absolute value of the difference calculated by the subtracting unit. | 05-15-2014 |
20140240559 | SOLID STATE IMAGING DEVICE, PORTABLE INFORMATION TERMINAL, AND SOLID STATE IMAGING SYSTEM - A solid state imaging device according to an embodiment includes: an imaging element formed on a semiconductor substrate, and including pixel blocks each having pixels; a main lens forming an image of a subject on an imaging plane; a microlens array including microlenses corresponding to the pixel blocks, the microlens array reducing an image to be formed on the imaging plane by Nf times or less and forming reduced images on the pixel blocks corresponding to the respective microlenses; and an image processing unit enlarging and synthesizing the reduced images formed by the microlenses, the solid state imaging device meeting conditions of an expression MTF | 08-28-2014 |
20140285671 | INFRARED IMAGING DEVICE AND INFRARED IMAGING MODULE - An infrared imaging module according to an embodiment includes: an infrared imaging element including a semiconductor substrate having a recessed portion, and a pixel portion formed on the recessed portion, the pixel portion converting infrared rays to electrical signals; and a lid including a lens portion facing the pixel portion, and a flat plate portion surrounding the lens portion, the flat plate portion being bonded to the semiconductor substrate. | 09-25-2014 |
20140285691 | SOLID STATE IMAGING DEVICE - A solid state imaging device according to an embodiment includes: a pixel array including a plurality of pixel blocks on a first surface of a semiconductor substrate, each pixel block having a first to third pixels each having a photoelectric conversion element, the first pixel having a first filter with a higher transmission to a light in a first wavelength range, the second pixel having a second filter with a higher transmission to a light in a second wavelength range having a complementary color to a color of the light in the first wavelength range, and the third pixel having a third filter transmitting lights in a wavelength range including the first and second wavelength ranges; a readout circuit reading signal charges from the first to the third pixels; and a signal processing circuit processing the signal charges. | 09-25-2014 |
20140285693 | MICROLENS ARRAY UNIT AND SOLID STATE IMAGING DEVICE - A microlens array unit according to an embodiment includes: a substrate; a first group of microlenses including first microlenses having a convex shape and a first focal length, the first group of microlenses being arranged on the substrate; and a second group of microlenses including second microlenses having a convex shape and a second focal length different from the first focal length, the second group of microlenses being arranged on the substrate, a first imaging plane of the first group of microlenses and a second imaging plane of the second group of microlenses being parallel to each other, a distance between the first and second imaging planes in a direction perpendicular to the first imaging plane being 20% or less of the first focal length, and images of the first microlenses projected on the substrate not overlapping images of the second microlenses projected on the substrate. | 09-25-2014 |
20140285703 | LIQUID CRYSTAL OPTICAL DEVICE, SOLID STATE IMAGING DEVICE, PORTABLE INFORMATION TERMINAL, AND DISPLAY DEVICE - A liquid crystal optical device includes: a first electrode unit including a first substrate transparent to light, a light-transmitting layer formed on the first substrate, and a first electrode formed on the light-transmitting layer and being transparent to light, the light-transmitting layer including recesses formed on a surface facing the first electrode, arranged in a first direction, and extending in a second direction; a second electrode unit including a second substrate, the second substrate being transparent to light, and two second electrodes formed on the second substrate, the second electrodes being arranged in the second direction and extending along the first direction; a liquid crystal layer located between the first and second electrode units; a first polarizing plate located on an opposite side of the second electrode unit from the liquid crystal layer; and a drive unit that applies voltages to the first and second electrodes. | 09-25-2014 |
20140285708 | SOLID STATE IMAGING DEVICE, PORTABLE INFORMATION TERMINAL, AND DISPLAY DEVICE - A solid state imaging device according to an embodiment includes: a liquid crystal optical element including a first electrode having a first recess and a projecting portion surrounding the first recess on a first surface, a second electrode facing the first surface of the first electrode, a filling film located between the first recess of the first electrode and the second electrode, and a liquid crystal layer located between the filling film and the second electrode; an imaging lens facing the second electrode to form an image of a subject on an imaging plane; and an imaging element facing the first recess, the imaging element having a pixel block having a plurality of pixels. | 09-25-2014 |