Invention Grant
- Patent Title: Image sensors having high dynamic range functionalities
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Application No.: US15906619Application Date: 2018-02-27
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Publication No.: US10440297B2Publication Date: 2019-10-08
- Inventor: Manuel Innocent , Tomas Geurts
- Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC
- Applicant Address: US AZ Phoenix
- Assignee: SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC
- Current Assignee: SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC
- Current Assignee Address: US AZ Phoenix
- Agency: Treyz Law Group, P.C.
- Agent Tianyi He
- Main IPC: H04N5/353
- IPC: H04N5/353 ; H04N5/374 ; H04N5/359 ; H04N5/363 ; H04N5/378 ; H01L27/146 ; H04N5/355 ; H04N5/357 ; H04N5/3745

Abstract:
An image sensor pixel may include a photodiode, a charge storage region, a floating diffusion node, and a capacitor. A first transistor may be coupled between the photodiode and the charge storage region. A second transistor may be coupled between the charge storage region and the capacitor. The photodiode may generate image signals corresponding to incident light. Multiple image signals may be summed at the charge storage region. The second transistor may determine a portion of the image signal that may be sent to the capacitor for storage. The portion of the image signal that is sent to the capacitor may be a low gain signal. A remaining portion of the image signal may be a high gain signal. The image sensor pixel may also include readout circuitry that is configured to readout low and high gain signals stored at the floating diffusion node in a double-sampling readout operation.
Public/Granted literature
- US20180191969A1 IMAGE SENSORS HAVING HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE FUNCTIONALITIES Public/Granted day:2018-07-05
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