| Patent application number | Description | Published |
|---|
| 20080258187 | METHODS, SYSTEMS AND APPARATUSES FOR THE DESIGN AND USE OF IMAGER SENSORS - An imager sensor cell design having readout circuitry contained within the photodiode region. | 10-23-2008 |
| 20080266435 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DARK CURRENT AND HOT PIXEL REDUCTION IN ACTIVE PIXEL IMAGE SENSORS - A method of operating an imager pixel that includes the act of applying a relatively small voltage on the gate of a transfer transistor during a charge acquisition period. If a small positive voltage is applied, a depletion region is created under the transfer transistor gate, which creates a path for dark current electrons to be transferred to a pixel floating diffusion region. The dark electrons are subsequently removed by a pixel reset operation. If a small negative voltage is applied to the transfer gate, electrons that would normally create dark current problems will instead recombine with holes thereby substantially reducing dark current. | 10-30-2008 |
| 20090103827 | METHODS, SYSTEMS, AND APPARATUSES THAT COMPENSATE FOR NOISE GENERATED IN AN IMAGER DEVICE - Methods, systems and apparatuses for using regular and/or dark pixels of a pixel array in either a fixed or dynamic fashion to compensate for fixed pattern noise. | 04-23-2009 |
| 20100163933 | ANTIBLOOMING IMAGING APPARATUS, SYSTEMS, AND METHODS - Apparatus, systems, and methods are described to assist in reducing dark current in an active pixel sensor. In various embodiments, a potential barrier arrangement is configured to block the flow of charge carriers generated outside a photosensitive region. In various embodiments, a potential well-potential barrier arrangement is formed to direct charge carriers away from the photosensitive region during an integration time. | 07-01-2010 |
| 20100219342 | ANTIBLOOMING IMAGING APPARATUS, SYSTEMS, AND METHODS - Apparatus, systems, and methods are described to assist in reducing dark current in an active pixel sensor. In various embodiments, a potential barrier arrangement is configured to block the flow of charge carriers generated outside a photosensitive region. In various embodiments, a potential well-potential barrier arrangement is formed to direct charge carriers away from the photosensitive region during an integration time. | 09-02-2010 |
| Patent application number | Description | Published |
|---|
| 20080291310 | Imager and system utilizing pixel with internal reset control and method of operating same - A pixel having no dedicated reset control line. By using the voltage on the column line to control the gate of the reset transistor, there is no need to provide a dedicate reset control line. | 11-27-2008 |
| 20090045322 | Optimization of alignment between elements in an image sensor - An image sensor is formed with shifts among the optical parts of the sensor and the photosensitive parts of the sensor. The optical parts of the sensor may include a color filter array and/or microlenses. The photosensitive part may include any photoreceptors such as a CMOS image sensor. The shifts allow images to be formed even when the light received at a given pixel location varies in angle of incidence as a function of pixel location within the array. The relative shifts among the pixel components may be, for example, plus or minus some fraction of the pixel pitch. The shift may be variable across the array or may be constant across the array and may be deterministically determined. | 02-19-2009 |
| 20090101796 | Methods, systems and apparatuses using barrier self-calibration for high dynamic range imagers - Methods, systems and apparatuses proving a high dynamic range imager. Multiple photosensor integration periods are used to capture pixel signal information. A transistor gate is used to remove electrons from the photosensor between the two successive integration periods providing a non-linear pixel response characteristic having a knee point. Each pixel is calibrated for the knee point which is used during adjustment of the pixel output signal. Each pixel may also be calibrated with an arbitrary signal response curve for multiple light intensities. | 04-23-2009 |
| 20090321799 | Method and apparatus for increasing conversion gain in imagers - A method, apparatus, and system providing a pixel having increased conversion gain by decreasing the size of an output charge storage region to less than that of a photosensor. A pixel readout is executed by multiple sampling signals based on portions of charge transferred from the photosensor to the storage region and combining the sampled signals in either the analog domain or the digital domain into a representative pixel output signal. | 12-31-2009 |
