Did You Know...
...that the video game, Pong, was invented by a guy who graduated at the bottom of his engineering class? Nolan Bushnell spent more time running the games at a local amusement park than he did on his studies at the University of Utah. His dreams of working for Disney's amusement empire were dashed when the company wouldn't hire him. Taking a boring job, Nolan daydreamed about electronic versions of popular games. He invented Pong, the first video game, and went on to found Atari Co.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8334918 | Solid-state imaging element A solid-state image pickup device 1 includes: a plurality of photoelectric converters 2 which are aligned in a predetermined direction and have a potential made higher toward one side of a direction crossing the predetermined direction; a transferring ... | 12/18/2012 |
| 8294802 | CCD image sensors having multiple lateral overflow drain regions for a horizontal shift register A charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor includes a layer of a semiconductor material having a first conductivity type. A horizontal CCD channel region of a second conductivity type is disposed in the layer of the semiconductor material. The horizontal CCD channel... | 10/23/2012 |
| 8223240 | Image pickup device and image pickup apparatus To provide an image pickup device and an image pickup apparatus which are equipped with a linear-log sensor which can cancel variations between pixels in an inflection point caused by variations in a threshold of the transistors constituting a logarithmic conversion... | 07/17/2012 |
| 8199238 | Electronic shutter control in image sensors An image sensor includes an electronic shutter layer that is used to drain charge away from the photosensitive regions during an electronic shutter operation. A current reference component is electrically connected to a contact to the electronic shutter layer. The c... | 06/12/2012 |
| 8184191 | Optical sensor and solid-state imaging device A solid-state imaging device includes a plurality of pixels stored in one-dimensional or two-dimensional array, each of the plurality of pixels including a photodiode receiving light and producing photocharges, an overflow gate coupled to the photodiode and transfer... | 05/22/2012 |
| 8134630 | System and method for draining residual charge from charge-coupled device (CCD) shift registers in image sensors having reset drains One or more charge storage regions in a charge-coupled device (CCD) shift register can contain residual charge that did not transfer to a reset drain during a reset operation. An image sensor drains the residual charge from each charge storage region by shifting the... | 03/13/2012 |
| 8102456 | CCD array with integrated high voltage protection circuit A CCD containing circuit and method for making the same. The circuit includes a CCD array and a protection circuit. The CCD array is constructed on an integrated circuit substrate and includes a plurality of gate electrodes that are insulated from the substrate by a... | 01/24/2012 |
| 7969495 | Method for driving CCD-type solid-state imaging device and imaging apparatus A method for driving a CCD-type solid-state imaging device includes: reading charges detected by photoelectric conversion elements into potential packets A (B) formed in a charge transfer path, dividing each potential packet A (B) into plural segment packets A1 | 06/28/2011 |
| 7944495 | Solid-state image pickup element including a thinning method to discharge unnecessary image data In a case where a thinning operation is implemented at the point when signal charges are read out from each of pixels to thin out pixel information by lines (row), the thinning may be performed only in the vertical direction, but not in the horizontal direction. In ... | 05/17/2011 |
| 7898589 | Driving apparatus for driving an imaging device A drive unit 120 sets a saturation amount in a read period in which charges generated in pixels are read to vertical CCDs to be lower in a combination mode than in an individual mode (see Vsub in count values 22 to 24 in FIG. 6). As a res... | 03/01/2011 |
| 7847849 | Solid-state imaging device, driving method thereof, and camera A solid-state imaging device includes: a plurality of light-receiving elements which are arranged by rows and columns. A driving unit performs a driving, so that a signal packet and a plurality of dummy packets in an identical column are mixed together into a mixed ... | 12/07/2010 |
| 7764316 | CCD array with integrated high voltage protection circuit A CCD containing circuit and method for making the same. The circuit includes a CCD array and a protection circuit. The CCD array is constructed on an integrated circuit substrate and includes a plurality of gate electrodes that are insulated from the substrate by a... | 07/27/2010 |
| 7683957 | Image sensing apparatus for stable clamping operation and draining unnecessary charges An object of this invention is to realize both stable clamping operation of a CDS circuit and an operation of draining unnecessary charges from a CCD. To achieve this object, during the storage period of an image sensing element, (A) vertical CCDs perform high-speed... | 03/23/2010 |
| 7663684 | Charge transfer device and a solid state imaging device using the charge transfer device An electric charge transfer apparatus comprising a plurality of vertical charge transfer devices for transferring a signal electric charge, a plurality of charge-discharging circuit sets formed next to each of the plurality of vertical charge transfer device, and an... | 02/16/2010 |
| 7659933 | Imaging device and driving method for solid-state imaging device A solid-state imaging device of the present invention includes: photodiodes having a vertical overflow drain structure; vertical shift registers for temporarily storing signals transferred from the photodiodes; and a horizontal shift register for storing and horizon... | 02/09/2010 |
| 7525588 | CMOS APS with stacked avalanche multiplication layer and low voltage readout electronics An image sensor includes a pixel having a protection circuit connected to a charge multiplying photoconversion layer. The protection circuit prevents the pixel circuit from breaking down when the voltage in the pixel circuit reaches the operating voltage applied to ... | 04/28/2009 |
| 7492404 | Fast flush structure for solid-state image sensors An image sensor includes a substrate; a plurality of pixels on the substrate, one or more of the pixels comprises (i) first and second charge-storage regions having at least one photosensitive area; (ii) a lateral overflow drain; (iii) a first lateral overflow gate ... | 02/17/2009 |
| 7430007 | Drive method of CCD color image sensor and color image input apparatus for realizing an electronic shutter function A drive method of a CCD color image sensor for realizing an electronic shutter function with the signal charge accumulation time varying from one color to another according to a simple structure is provided. Unnecessary charges occurring in photoelectric conversion ... | 09/30/2008 |
| 7420605 | Solid state imager arrangements A solid state imager arrangement includes an image area, an output register which receives signal charge from the image area, a separate multiplication register into which signal charge from the output register is transferred, means for obtaining signal charge multi... | 09/02/2008 |
| 7391455 | Solid-state imaging apparatus for controlling a sweep transfer period in dependence upon the amount of unnecessary charges to be swept out A solid-state image pickup apparatus includes a solid-state image sensor having photosensitive cells and vertical transfer paths. The cells are bidimensionally arranged for converting light incident from a subject via optics to electric charges corresponding to the ... | 06/24/2008 |
| 7388611 | Solid-state image-taking apparatus, solid-state image-taking system, and apparatus and method for driving the solid-state image-taking apparatus A solid-state image-taking system including a gate voltage control unit 31 and a substrate voltage control unit 32, for preventing generation of a defective image such as a residual image, without increasing the read voltage. The gate voltage control u... | 06/17/2008 |
| 7379110 | Solid-state image pickup device for producing thinned image There is disclosed a solid-state image pickup device in which light receiving elements of a light receiving region generates information charges in accordance with incident lights. The information charges are transferred to storage picture elements of a storage regi... | 05/27/2008 |
| 7372496 | Solid-state image capturing device and imaging apparatus using the same An n-type semiconductor substrate 11 has a p-type well 12 in which are formed a charge transfer channel 13, a flowing diffusion region 14 made of an n-type impurity region, an n-type buried region 16 and a reset drain region 15 | 05/13/2008 |
| 7372495 | CMOS aps with stacked avalanche multiplication layer and low voltage readout electronics An image sensor includes a pixel having a protection circuit connected to a charge multiplying photoconversion layer. The protection circuit prevents the pixel circuit from breaking down when the voltage in the pixel circuit reaches the operating voltage applied to ... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7369166 | Single substrate camera device with CMOS image sensor Single substrate device is formed to have an image acquisition device and a controller. The controller on the substrate controls the system operation. ... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7369683 | Imaging device In an imaging device of the present invention, an imaging element 2 is driven in a thinning read-out mode for reading out signal charges from a subset of pixels, or in an all-pixels read-out mode for reading out signal charges from all pixels. When the imagin... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7365779 | Image processing apparatus for selectively storing specific regions of an image The invention provides an image processing apparatus that can reduce the memory capacity of a memory forming part of the image processing apparatus and can correct the optical axis misalignment of a video camera in a simple manner. The image processing apparatus ... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7365785 | Electronic camera There is provided an electronic camera comprising an imaging element which photo-electrically converts an object field light, a timing generator including an internal register in which timing of a drive signal used to operate the imaging element can be programmed, a... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7365786 | Solid state image sensing apparatus with enhanced sensitivity realized by improving linear characteristic of photodiode and its driving method A driver unit of a solid state image sensing apparatus changes the substrate bias voltage from a first bias voltage to a second bias voltage which is lower than the first bias voltage and is for making a height of an overflow barrier higher than a height of the barr... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7365773 | CMOS APS with stacked avalanche multiplication layer and low voltage readout electronics An image sensor includes a pixel having a protection circuit connected to a charge multiplying photoconversion layer. The protection circuit prevents the pixel circuit from breaking down when the voltage in the pixel circuit reaches the operating voltage applied to ... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7355156 | Solid-state image pickup device, image pickup unit and image processing method A solid-state image pickup device comprising a semiconductor substrate, and a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements arranged on a surface of said semiconductor substrate both in a line direction and in a column direction perpendicular to the line direction ... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7355760 | Solid-state image sensing device, driving method thereof, and image scanner A CCD linear sensor includes a monochrome sensor and a color sensor, which have different transfer speeds and which are mounted on the same chip. In the CCD linear sensor, while one read-out operation is performed by the color sensor, two read-out operations are per... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7352047 | Systems and methods for integration of heterogeneous circuit devices A heterogeneous device comprises a substrate and a plurality of heterogeneous circuit devices defined in the substrate. In embodiments, a plurality of heterogeneous circuit devices are integrated by successively masking and ion implanting the substrate. The heteroge... | 04/01/2008 |
| 7349019 | Solid-state imaging device, camera, power supply device and method thereof With the use of the MOS-type solid-state imaging device, it is possible, by extending the period during which the VDD voltage rises from Low level to High level, that the gate voltage of the resetting unit does not fluctuate to have a positive electric potential due... | 03/25/2008 |
| 7333144 | Electronic flash device and camera having the same An electronic flash device and a camera which can smoothly display a video even though preliminary emission for red-eye reduction in photographing the video are obtained. A timing generator generates a preliminary emission signal such that preliminary emission for r... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7321392 | Solid state imaging device with lateral overflow drain and driving method thereof achieving low power consumption A solid state imaging device comprises channel regions of one conductivity type arranged to extend along a first direction in parallel to each other with predetermined intervals on one surface of a semiconductor substrate, drain regions of the one conductivity type ... | 01/22/2008 |
| 7315330 | Solid-state image pickup element including a thinning method to discharge unnecessary image data In a case where a thinning operation is implemented at the point when signal charges are read out from each of pixels to thin out pixel information by lines (row), the thinning may be performed only in the vertical direction, but not in the horizontal direction. In ... | 01/01/2008 |
| 7315329 | Solid-state image-pickup device having an accumulation gate for reading out, accumulating, and allocating signal charges The present invention relates to a solid-state image pickup device comprising a sensor array and a plurality of transfer registers for transferring signal charges from the sensors of the sensor array, wherein an accumulation gate is provided between the sensor array... | 01/01/2008 |
| 7312825 | Solid-state image pick device having a timing pulse generator, and method for replacing signals from a switch A solid state image pickup device being provided with a photoelectric converter portion being composed of a plurality of pixels disposed in a row, a charge transfer portion for transferring the charges generated in the photoelectric converter portion, and a charge/v... | 12/25/2007 |
| 7298408 | Method and apparatus for image capturing capable of capturing an image with a reduced current consumption An imaging apparatus includes an image optical pick-up device, first and second driving mechanisms, a shutter, and a driving current controlling mechanism. The image optical pick-up device photoelectrically converts an incident light image of a subject of a photogra... | 11/20/2007 |
