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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8111312 | Solid-state imaging device, method of driving the same, and camera A solid-state imaging device includes: a plurality of pixels which are arranged in a matrix; a sequential scanning device that selects each row of pixels; and an analog-to-digital conversion unit having a first analog-to-digital converter that is connected to a vert... | 02/07/2012 |
| 8102449 | Image pickup circuit having circuit blocks with counters An image pickup circuit includes a plurality of circuit blocks. Each of the plurality of circuit blocks includes a plurality of comparing elements, a single counter, and a plurality of storage units. Each of the comparing elements compares a pixel signal supplied th... | 01/24/2012 |
| 8094225 | Solid-state imaging apparatus A solid-state imaging apparatus includes a plurality of pixels, with each of the pixels including a photoelectric conversion unit, a charge accumulating unit, an amplifying unit, and a transfer electrode. The apparatus further includes a light shielding portion cove... | 01/10/2012 |
| 8072523 | Redundancy in column parallel or row architectures A column circuitry architecture for an imager includes redundant column or row circuits. The column or row circuitry includes a number of redundant column or row circuits. Each column or row circuit include circuitry for controllably coupling the column or row circu... | 12/06/2011 |
| 8049801 | Image sensor and imaging apparatus An image sensor captures an image formed through an optical system and includes a plurality of types of imaging pixels with spectral sensitivity characteristics different from one another, two dimensionally disposed in a predetermined array. The image sensor include... | 11/01/2011 |
| 8045028 | Six transistor (6T) pixel architecture A pixel having a high voltage DC supply being replaced by a pulsed signal high voltage supply that is coupled to one of the plates of a memory capacitor in the pixel. ... | 10/25/2011 |
| 8040417 | Imaging element suitable for readout charges in plural times in a time dividing manner in one horizontal scanning period An imaging clement that performs a processing with respect to a predetermined line of a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements in plural times in a time dividing manner in each horizontal scanning period, includes a photoelectric conversion unit; an address ... | 10/18/2011 |
| 8035715 | Image sensor Provided is an image sensor that may reduce the number of external terminals for downsizing of a chip, generate a write signal (RE) of a Y address with one pulse, and employ an external circuit having the same configuration as that of the conventional example. The i... | 10/11/2011 |
| 8035714 | Solid-state imaging device, method of manufacturing the same, and camera Disclosed is a solid-state imaging device includes for each pixel a photoelectric conversion unit, a charge accumulating portion, and a potential barrier provided between the photoelectric conversion unit and the charge accumulating portion, in a thickness direction... | 10/11/2011 |
| 8031247 | Method and apparatus providing an imager with a shared power supply and readout line for pixels A method and apparatus providing an imager with shared power supply and readout lines. A pixel array has a plurality of pixels arranged in rows and columns. Each column of the array comprises a column line coupled to receive pixel signals from the pixels in the colu... | 10/04/2011 |
| 8009214 | Individual row calibration in an image sensor A column parallel image sensor such as an active pixel sensor includes a calibration circuit for the readout circuit within the active pixel sensor. The calibration circuit produces a value that is stored and used to offset any noise in the A/D converter. The calibr... | 08/30/2011 |
| 7999869 | Random access decoder A random access decoder comprising a plurality of decoder circuit elements, each decoder circuit element having a unique electronic address and a binary data output, means for applying an input signal to each of the decoder circuit element and where each decoder cir... | 08/16/2011 |
| 7978243 | Imaging apparatus, driving method thereof, and imaging system In an imaging apparatus according to the present invention, the driving unit drives each of the pixels in the non-readout region in the first mode such that the setting unit sets the input unit to a third electric potential with the transfer unit being ready to tran... | 07/12/2011 |
| 7965327 | Method and apparatus for detecting camera sensor intensity saturation An apparatus for detecting intensity saturation of a light sensor includes a saturation detector for detecting and measuring an intensity saturation condition of at least one pixel of a light sensor, the intensity saturation condition of the pixel being at saturatio... | 06/21/2011 |
| 7961238 | Solid-state image pickup device and method for driving the same in a number of modes A system and method for driving a solid-state image pickup device including a pixel array unit including unit pixels. Each unit pixel includes a photoelectric converter, column signal lines and a number of analog-digital converting units. The unit pixels are selecti... | 06/14/2011 |
| 7956914 | Imager methods, apparatuses, and systems providing a skip mode with a wide dynamic range operation Methods, apparatuses and systems provide a high dynamic range mode of operation for an image sensor when operating in a skip mode where certain pixels of an array are not readout. Multiple integration periods are employed in the skip mode with selected pixels being ... | 06/07/2011 |
| 7940317 | Image sensor having a pixel array with serial readout The image sensor includes an array of pixels, each pixel having a photo-diode, for providing a pixel voltage, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) operable to convert the pixel voltage to a digital value and a memory for storing the digital value. Read circuitry is ... | 05/10/2011 |
| 7929034 | Active pixel sensor array reset The method and apparatus for resetting an Active Pixel Sensor (APS) array comprises a controller for sequentially pre-resetting groups of one or more sensors in the array and then simultaneously resetting all of the sensors. The groups may be formed from one or more... | 04/19/2011 |
| 7903159 | Image sensor ADC and CDS per column A solid state imager converts analog pixel values to digital form on an arrayed per-column basis. A counter is coupled to an N-bit DAC to produce an analog ramp that varies corresponding to the contents of the counter. A ripple counter is associated with each respec... | 03/08/2011 |
| 7898585 | Flat display panel and method of manufacture A flat display for use in mobile terminals includes both a display function and a camera function, and the components for each of the functions are disposed on a common transparent substrate. The display function includes a plurality of display pixels, and each disp... | 03/01/2011 |
| 7889255 | Solid-state imaging device comprising a signal storage section including a highly doped area Each of the unit cells provided on a semiconductor substrate of a solid-state imaging device comprises a first p-type well which isolates the semiconductor substrate into an n-type photoelectric conversion region, a second p-type well which is formed in the surface ... | 02/15/2011 |
| 7880786 | Solid-state image pickup device with an improved reading speed A CMOS color image sensor, which is a solid-state image pickup device, includes a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix having a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, each of the plurality of pixels converting the incident light intensity into an electric... | 02/01/2011 |
| 7864237 | Solid-state imaging device, method of driving solid-state imaging device, and camera A solid-state imaging device includes: a plurality of pixels each converting the amount of incident light into an electric signal and disposed in a plurality of columns to be deviated from the neighboring pixels in a row direction or in a column direction; a plurali... | 01/04/2011 |
| 7859581 | Image sensor with charge binning and dual channel readout An image sensor includes: (a) a plurality of light measuring elements arranged in an array and at least a portion of the elements have a color filter mated with the light receiving elements which permits selective color reception by the light measuring elements; (b)... | 12/28/2010 |
| 7852391 | Substitution of defective readout circuits in imagers An imaging system configured with readout circuit redundancy is disclosed. Pixel data from a particular column can be steered around a defective readout circuit to an operational readout circuit. Thus, larger imaging arrays which are generally more prone to common c... | 12/14/2010 |
| 7843503 | System and method for reading information in a set of electronic components connected to a communication bus, and application to reading a matrix of pixels A device for reading information in a set of electronic components connected to a communication bus in order to send that information over the communication bus includes means for reading values held in at least some of the electronic components holding a value to b... | 11/30/2010 |
| 7830437 | High fill factor multi-way shared pixel A pixel cell array architecture having a multiple pixel cells with shared pixel cell components. The individual pixel cell architecture increases the fill factor and the quantum efficiency for the pixel cell. The common pixel cell components may be shared by a numbe... | 11/09/2010 |
| 7821556 | Amplifying solid-state imaging device, and method for driving the same By providing dummy pixels separately from effective pixels, the total number of pixel rows is equalized with the number of horizontal sync signals included in one frame interval (which is called an “HD number”). A period during which a reset signal for an electr... | 10/26/2010 |
| 7812877 | I/F conversion device and photo-detection device An I/F converter 10 includes a first comparator portion 111, a second comparator portion 112, a current mirror circuit 14, a reference voltage source 15, an SR-type flip-flop circuit 16, a buffer amplif... | 10/12/2010 |
| 7804537 | Combined linear-logarithmic image sensor An image sensor includes an array of pixels, with each pixel including a photodiode, and a first output circuit for deriving a linear output signal by applying a reset signal to the photodiode and reading a voltage on the photodiode after an integration time. A seco... | 09/28/2010 |
| 7787038 | Solid-state image pickup device and driving method therefor A CMOS image sensor is disclosed which can achieve reduction of the voltage used to read out signal charge and can achieve expansion of the dynamic range. A P-well region is formed on a semiconductor substrate, and an embedded photodiode, a transfer transistor, an a... | 08/31/2010 |
| 7782382 | Digital camera First pixels and second pixels are arranged in an LCD of a digital camera. Image light from the first pixel is diffused by a diffusing filter. Image light from the second pixel is deflected by a prism and directed in an oblique direction. When the LCD is viewed from... | 08/24/2010 |
| 7773139 | Image sensor with photosensitive thin film transistors An image sensor array includes image sensors having photo TFTs to generate photocurrent in response to received images. The photo TFTs each have their respective gate electrodes and source electrodes independently biased to reduce the effects of dark current. Storag... | 08/10/2010 |
| 7768562 | Method, apparatus and system providing imager vertical binning and scaling using column parallel sigma-delta digital conversion A method, apparatus and system are disclosed for digitizing a plurality of analog pixel signals of a pixel array in a manner which produces a digital signal representing the combination of said plurality of analog pixel signals. A readout architecture performs at le... | 08/03/2010 |
| 7750960 | System and apparatus for high dynamic range sensor A system and method of operating a sensor array are provided. The method includes adjusting the reverse bias voltage for the photodiode of at least one pixel in the sensor array based on previous output values of one or more pixels in the array, algorithms, and/or u... | 07/06/2010 |
| 7746399 | Image pick-up device A pixel portion of an image pick-up device having a pixel portion of pixels arranged in matrix converting a subject image to an electric signal, and a scanning unit of sub-scanning circuits outputting a video signal, a first scanning circuit selecting a pixel positi... | 06/29/2010 |
| 7728894 | High-speed CMOS image sensor A CMOS image sensor having two ASPs can reduce increasing design difficulty as arising from a pixel array becoming larger and larger. The image sensor includes a selection circuit for transmitting outputs of CDS circuits through four divided buses to reduce parasiti... | 06/01/2010 |
| 7728895 | Solid-state image sensing device having shared floating diffusion portions A solid-state image sensing device includes: a plurality of unit pixels 21 arranged in rows and columns each of which outputs a pixel signal according to incident light; and a plurality of floating diffusion portions 22 each of which receives the pixel... | 06/01/2010 |
| 7728893 | Imaging device and method for reading signals from such device Each pixel cell (12) of an image sensor (10) is made of a 4-Tr structure, in which only one Tr for resetting a column (X) is so added to an ordinary 3-Tr APS as to reset only an arbitrary pixel selectively, thereby to confine the pixel size. When a pix... | 06/01/2010 |
| 7719587 | Signal readout structure for an image sensing apparatus An image sensing apparatus includes a photoelectric converter having a plurality of pixels covered by a color filter composed of a plurality of colors, a plurality of common readout units adapted to sequentially output signals from the plurality of pixels, a time di... | 05/18/2010 |
