公开(公告)号：US10440297B2

公开(公告)日：2019-10-08

申请号：US15906619

申请日：2018-02-27

Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC

Inventor： Manuel Innocent ,  Tomas Geurts

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.

公开(公告)号：US10110839B2

公开(公告)日：2018-10-23

申请号：US15145374

申请日：2016-05-03

Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC

Inventor： Marko Mlinar ,  Tomas Geurts ,  Manuel Innocent

IPC: H04N3/14 ,  H04N5/335 ,  H04N5/359 ,  H04N5/372

Abstract: An image sensor may have an array of pixels that include nested sub-pixels that each have at least one respective photodiode. An inner sub-pixel of a pixel with nested sub-pixels may have a relatively lower effective light collecting area compared to an outer sub-pixel of the pixel within which the inner sub-pixel is nested. A pixel circuit for the nested sub-pixels may include an overflow capacitor and/or a coupled gate circuit used to route charges from the photodiode in the inner sub-pixel. The lower light collecting area of the photodiode in the inner sub-pixel, with optional flicker mitigation charge routing from the coupled gates structure, may reduce the size of the capacitors required to capture photodiode and photodiode overflow charge responses. Flicker mitigation charge routing using a coupled gates structure may allow an adjustable proportion of the overflow charge to be stored in one or more storage capacitors.

公开(公告)号：US09942492B2

公开(公告)日：2018-04-10

申请号：US15184390

申请日：2016-06-16

Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC

Inventor： Manuel Innocent ,  Tomas Geurts

IPC: H04N5/353 ,  H04N5/378 ,  H04N5/363 ,  H04N5/359 ,  H04N5/374 ,  H01L27/146 ,  H04N5/3745 ,  H04N5/357 ,  H04N5/355

CPC classification number: H04N5/353 ,  H01L27/14643 ,  H04N5/3559 ,  H04N5/3575 ,  H04N5/3592 ,  H04N5/363 ,  H04N5/37452 ,  H04N5/378

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.

公开(公告)号：US09900481B2

公开(公告)日：2018-02-20

申请号：US15140038

申请日：2016-04-27

Applicant: SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC

Inventor： Tomas Geurts ,  Richard Scott Johnson ,  Manuel Innocent

IPC: H04N5/225 ,  H04N5/369 ,  H04N5/372 ,  H04N5/376 ,  H04N5/235

CPC classification number: H04N5/2253 ,  H04N5/2355 ,  H04N5/3559 ,  H04N5/359 ,  H04N5/3698 ,  H04N5/372 ,  H04N5/3745 ,  H04N5/37452 ,  H04N5/3765

Abstract: An image sensor may include one or more pixels having a coupled gate structure that may selectively route overflow charge from a photodiode to increase the dynamic range of the pixel. The coupled gate structure may include two, three or four transistors. During charge accumulation in the pixel, overflow charge may pass from a photodiode to the coupled gate structure to be selectively routed to one of a plurality of paths. Timing of control signals for a subset of the transistors in the coupled gate structure may alternate such that only one transistor is active to pass charge to one of the plurality of paths at any given time. Depending on the selected path, overflow charge may be routed to a pixel voltage supply or to one or more storage nodes in the pixel. Pixels may also include a dual-gain structure, which may provide additional charge storage capacity.