Patent classifications
H04N25/768
Photoelectric conversion device
The photoelectric conversion device includes pixels each including photoelectric converters and a floating diffusion to which charges of the photoelectric converters are transferred, a vertical scanning unit for performing readout processing and reset processing on the pixels while switching the photoelectric converter to be processed and the floating diffusion to be processed, and a control unit that controls the vertical scanning unit. The control unit includes a readout row address generation unit and a reset row address generation unit that generate a row address to be processed. A first cycle in which the photoelectric converter is switched is shorter than a second cycle in which the floating diffusion is switched, an update cycle of the row address is equal to the second cycle, and a setting unit of an update timing of the row address is equal to the length of one cycle of the first cycle.
Photoelectric conversion device
The photoelectric conversion device includes pixels each including photoelectric converters and a floating diffusion to which charges of the photoelectric converters are transferred, a vertical scanning unit for performing readout processing and reset processing on the pixels while switching the photoelectric converter to be processed and the floating diffusion to be processed, and a control unit that controls the vertical scanning unit. The control unit includes a readout row address generation unit and a reset row address generation unit that generate a row address to be processed. A first cycle in which the photoelectric converter is switched is shorter than a second cycle in which the floating diffusion is switched, an update cycle of the row address is equal to the second cycle, and a setting unit of an update timing of the row address is equal to the length of one cycle of the first cycle.
TIME DELAY INTEGRATION STRUCTURE FOR COMPLEMENTARY METAL-OXIDE SEMICONDUCTOR IMAGING SENSOR
A system is provided for time delay integration in complementary metal oxide semiconductor imaging sensors, the system comprising: a two dimensional parallel charge transfer structure comprising at least one column of CMOS Image sensor pinned photodiodes; each the diode in the column being connected to the next the diode by a two phase transfer gate, each the transfer gate having a barrier and a well configured such that a flow of charge in the column is unidirectional.
SOLID-STATE IMAGING ELEMENT AND IMAGING DEVICE
A solid-state imaging element including a well improves area efficiency while reducing malfunction of a circuit on the well. The solid-state imaging element includes a first well, a second well, a first circuit, and a second circuit. The first well contains an impurity having a polarity identical to a polarity of an impurity in a substrate. The second well contains an impurity having a polarity identical to the polarity of the impurity in the substrate and is disposed adjacent to the first well. The first circuit is disposed on the first well and generates noise in a predetermined period. The second circuit is disposed on the second well and generates noise in a period different from the predetermined period.
Cross-row time delay integration method, apparatus and camera
The application provides a cross-row time delay integral method, apparatus and camera. The method includes obtaining a first stage integral energy in an i-th target region from an i-th row of a first integral piece domain; transferring the first stage integral energy across rows to an i-th row of a second integral piece domain; obtaining the first stage integral energy and an second stage integral energy accumulated in the i-th target region from the i-th row of the second integral piece domain, after an integration period; outputting an image of the i-th target region containing the first stage integral energy and the second stage integral energy. The application performs cross-row integration through the energy obtained by imaging, the shooting of the target can be carried out in a higher-speed environment, the method can be implemented on the existing photoelectric device, and the method has excellent imaging quality and wide applicability.
SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR INCREASING DYNAMIC RANGE OF TIME-DELAY INTEGRATION IMAGES
A method for increasing dynamic range of a time-delay integration (TDI) image includes assigning a value N to a line-number setting and generating each line of the TDI image by (i) selecting N lines from N corresponding images of an image sequence, and (ii) integrating the N lines. The brightness of the TDI image is evaluated, after which the line-number setting is updated to a new value. In another method, the value of a TDI pixel is initialized to the value of a corresponding pixel in a first image of the image sequence. While the TDI pixel value is less than a ceiling, a contribution is added to the TDI pixel value, the contribution being based on the value of an additional corresponding pixel in an additional image of the image sequence. After adding, the resulting TDI pixel value may be scaled based on the number of contributions.
IMAGE SENSOR CIRCUITRY FOR REDUCING EFFECTS OF LASER SPECKLES
Image sensor circuitry comprising an image sensor and method for supporting reduction of laser speckle effects in a digital image. Per each pixel position (x, y) of at least a subregion of the image sensor, the image sensing circuitry: Assigns to said pixel position (x,y) a predefined pixel window (w) comprising said pixel position (x,y) and one or more of its closest neighboring pixel positions. Obtains first pixel values for each pixel located within said predefined pixel window (w), said first pixel values resulting from the same exposure and corresponding to sensed light from this exposure. Combines the obtained first pixel values into a single, second pixel value according to a predefined combination function. The digital image is provided based on the second pixel values.
High scanning frequency CMOS-TDI image sensor
The present invention relates to technical field of analog integrated circuit design. TDI function is better realized by CMOS image sensor and it improves scanning frequency of the CMOS-TDI image sensor and extends application range of TDI technique. To this end, the present invention proposes a technical solution of high scanning frequency CMOS-TDI image sensor. The pixels include a photodiode, an operational amplifier, integration capacitors C1 and C2 of the same capacitance, an offset voltage removing capacitor C3, and plural switches S1-S10. The anode of the photodiode is connected to a zero voltage ground wire, while the cathode thereof is connected to one end of the switch S9. The other end of the switch S9 is connected to a reference voltage V.sub.ref. The above pixels are cascaded and an output end of the last pixel is connected to a column-parallel ADC through a readout switch Read. The invention mainly applies to analog integration circuit design.
Systems and methods for generating time delay integration color images at increased resolution
A method for generating time delay integration color images at increased resolution includes (a) capturing sequential digital two-dimensional color images of a scene using an area scan color image sensor including lines of color sensor pixels, wherein each color sensor pixel including a Bayer-type array of photosites, and (b) processing the sequential digital two-dimensional color images to generate a time delay integration color image of an object moving in the scene, wherein the processing includes increasing resolution of the time delay integration color image by including crossover pixels formed by combining photosites from sequentially captured two-dimensional color images.
PROGRAMMABLE DIGITAL TDI EO/IR SCANNING FOCAL PLANE ARRAY WITH MULTIPLE SELECTABLE TDI SUB-BANKS
A TDI scanner including a dynamically programmable focal plane array including a two-dimensional array of detectors arranged in a plurality of columns and a plurality of rows, the array being divided into a plurality of banks separated from one another by gap regions, each bank including a plurality of sub-banks, and each sub-bank including at least one row of detectors, a ROIC coupled to the focal plane array and configured to combine in a TDI process outputs from detectors in each column of detectors in each sub-bank, and a controller configured to program the focal plane array to selectively and dynamically set characteristics of the focal plane array, the characteristics including a size and a location within the two-dimensional array of each of the plurality of sub-banks and the gap regions, the size corresponding to a number of rows of detectors included in the respective sub-bank or gap region.