Invention Grant
- Patent Title: On-chip time-based digital conversion of pixel outputs
- Patent Title (中): 片上基于时间的数字转换像素输出
-
Application No.: US12175091Application Date: 2008-07-17
-
Publication No.: US07889257B2Publication Date: 2011-02-15
- Inventor: Thierry Oggier , Michael Lehmann , Bernhard Buettgen
- Applicant: Thierry Oggier , Michael Lehmann , Bernhard Buettgen
- Applicant Address: CH Zurich
- Assignee: MESA Imaging AG
- Current Assignee: MESA Imaging AG
- Current Assignee Address: CH Zurich
- Agency: Houston Eliseeva LLP
- Main IPC: H04N3/14
- IPC: H04N3/14 ; H04N5/335 ; H01L27/00

Abstract:
An integrated sensor chip comprises at least one pixel. The at least one pixel comprises: one or several integration regions for receiving and storing photogenerated charges; a modulation region that moves the photogenerated charges to be stored in the at least two integration regions; and sense nodes, in which each of the sense nodes is associated with one of the integration regions, into which the photogenerated charges are moved from the integration regions during a readout stage. The chip comprises: at least one function generator for generating a time-varying function that is applied to the integration regions during the readout cycle to move the photogenerated changes to the sense nodes; a counter generates a count during the generation of the time-varying function; and registers, in which each of the registers is associated with one of the sense nodes during read out, for storing digital values; wherein the registers store the count in response to the associated sense node receiving photogenerated charges from the associated integration regions.
Public/Granted literature
- US20090021617A1 On-chip time-based digital conversion of pixel outputs Public/Granted day:2009-01-22
Information query