IMAGE SENSING COMPUTING UNIT AND ITS OPERATING METHOD, IMAGE SENSING COMPUTER AND ELECTRONIC DEVICE
20250006749 ยท 2025-01-02
Assignee
Inventors
- Zheng ZHOU (Beijing, CN)
- Guihai YU (Beijing, CN)
- Xiaoyan Liu (Beijing, CN)
- Jinfeng KANG (Beijing, CN)
- Peng Huang (Beijing, CN)
Cpc classification
H04N25/77
ELECTRICITY
H10F39/8023
ELECTRICITY
International classification
Abstract
The present disclosure provides an image sensing computing unit and its operating method, an image sensing computer and an electronic device. Among them, the image sensing computing unit includes a first photosensitive unit and a second photosensitive unit. The second photosensitive unit is connected in series with the first photosensitive unit. The changing direction of the first threshold voltage of the first photosensitive unit when receiving light is opposite to the changing direction of the second threshold voltage of the second photosensitive unit when receiving light, so as to implement an in-situ logical operation between light input signals.
Claims
1. An image sensing computing unit, which comprises: a first photosensitive unit, and a second photosensitive unit connected in series with the first photosensitive unit, wherein, the changing direction of the first threshold voltage of the first photosensitive unit when receiving light is opposite to the changing direction of the second threshold voltage of the second photosensitive unit when receiving light, so as to realize the in-situ logic operation between the light input signals.
2. The image sensing computing unit of claim 1, wherein the first photosensitive unit comprises: a first transistor, a first buried oxide layer located below the first transistor; a first doped well layer located below the first buried oxide layer.
3. The image sensing computing unit of claim 2, wherein the second photosensitive unit comprises: a second transistor, a second buried oxide layer located below the second transistor; a second doped well layer located below the second buried oxide layer.
4. The image sensing computing unit of claim 3, wherein the transistor type of the first transistor is different from the transistor type of the second transistor, and the well doped type of the first doped well layer is the same as the well doped type of the second doped well layer.
5. The image sensing computing unit of claim 3, wherein, the source electrode of the first transistor is connected to the power supply voltage, the drain electrode of the first transistor is connected to the drain electrode of the second transistor, and the source electrode of the second transistor is grounded; wherein the gate electrode of the first transistor is connected to a first gate control voltage, the gate electrode of the second transistor is connected to a second gate control voltage, the first doped well layer is connected to a first well control voltage, and the second doped well layer is connected to a second well control voltage.
6. An operating method of the image sensing computing unit according to claim 1, which comprises: performing an exposure operation on the image sensing computing unit in the off state, so that the equivalent resistance of the first photosensitive unit and/or the second photosensitive unit in the image sensing computing unit changes; controlling the first gate control voltage of the first photosensitive unit and/or the second gate control voltage of the second photosensitive unit after the exposure operation, which is to generate the output voltage of the image sensing computing unit and achieve the readout operation for the image sensing arithmetic unit; and controlling the first gate control voltage of the first photosensitive unit and/or the second gate control voltage of the second photosensitive unit that has undergone the readout operation, which is to turn off the first photosensitive unit and/or the second photosensitive unit; and simultaneously controlling the first well control voltage and/or the second well control voltage to implement a reset operation for the image sensing computing unit.
7. The operating method of claim 6, wherein the performing an exposure operation on the image sensing computing unit in an off state comprises: controlling the first gate control voltage of the first photosensitive unit in the image sensing computing unit and/or the second gate control voltage of the second photosensitive unit in the image sensing computing unit, so that the first photosensitive unit and/or the second photosensitive unit in the image sensing computing unit are turned off, which makes that the image sensing computing unit is in the off state; and controlling the first well control voltage of the first photosensitive unit and/or the second well control voltage of the second photosensitive unit to implement the exposure operation.
8. The operating method of claim 6, wherein controlling the first gate control voltage of the first photosensitive unit and/or the second gate control voltage of the second photosensitive unit in the image sensing computing unit after the exposure operation to generate an output voltage of the image sensing computing unit, comprising: when the first well control voltage of the first photosensitive unit and/or the second well control voltage of the second photosensitive unit remain unchanged, controlling the first gate control voltage and/or the second gate control voltage to turn on the first photosensitive unit and/or the second photosensitive unit; and reading the drain terminal voltage between the first photosensitive unit and the second photosensitive unit as the output voltage.
9. An image sensing computer, comprising an image sensing array comprising a plurality of image sensing computing units of claim 1.
10. An electronic device comprising the image sensing computer of claim 9.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0013]
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[0015]
[0016]
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[0018]
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[0020]
[0021]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
[0022] In order to make purposes, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more clear, the present invention will be further described in detail below with reference to specific embodiments and the accompanying drawings.
[0023] It should be noted that implementation methods not shown or described in the drawings or the text of the specification are all forms known to those of ordinary skill in the technical field and have not been described in detail. In addition, definitions of each element and method are not limited to the various specific structures, shapes or methods mentioned above in embodiments, which may be simply modified or replaced by those of ordinary skill in the art.
[0024] It should also be noted that the directional terms mentioned in the embodiments, such as up, down, front, back, left, right, etc., are only for reference to the directions of the drawings, not used to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Throughout the drawings, the same elements are designated by the same or similar reference numerals. Conventional structures or constructions will be omitted where they may obscure the understanding of the present disclosure.
[0025] Moreover, the shapes and sizes of the components in the figures do not reflect the actual sizes and proportions, but only illustrate the contents of embodiments of the present disclosure. Furthermore, in the claims, any reference signs between parentheses shall not be construed as limiting the claim.
[0026] Furthermore, the word comprising does not exclude the presence of elements or steps not listed in a claim. The word a or an preceding an element does not exclude the presence of a plurality of such elements.
[0027] The serial numbers used in the description and claims, such as first, second, third, etc., are used to modify the corresponding elements. They themselves do not mean that the element has any ordinal number, nor do they represent an order of a certain component with another component or an order of a manufacturing method. The use of these serial numbers is only used to clearly distinguish one component with a certain name from another component with the same name.
[0028] Those skilled in the art will understand that modules in the devices in an embodiment may be adaptively changed and provided in one or more devices different from that in the embodiment. The modules or units or components in the embodiments may be combined into one module or unit or component, and furthermore they may be divided into a plurality of sub-modules or sub-units or sub-components. Except that at least some of such features and/or processes or units are mutually exclusive, all features disclosed in this specification (including the accompanying claims, abstract and drawings) and any method so disclosed or all processes or units of the device may be employed in any combination. Unless expressly stated otherwise, each feature disclosed in this specification (including accompanying claims, abstract and drawings) may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose. Furthermore, in the element claim enumerating several means, several of these means may be embodied by the same item of hardware.
[0029] Similarly, it should be understood that in the above description of exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, in order to simplify the present disclosure and assist in understanding one or more of various aspects of the present disclosure, various features of the present disclosure are sometimes grouped together into a single embodiment, figure, or in its description. However, this method of the present disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the present disclosure requires more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as reflected by the following claims, disclosed aspects lie in less than all features of a single foregoing disclosed embodiment. Thus, the claims following the detailed description of embodiments are hereby expressly incorporated into this detailed description of embodiments, with each claim being implemented as a separate embodiment of the present disclosure.
[0030] In order to solve the technical problems in the related art that a more complex system composition and low logical processing efficiency which are caused by the traditional image sensing computing system that requires a signal computing processing module to implement light signal computing processing, the present disclosure provides an image sensing computing unit that may directly implement logical operation between light signals and its operating method, an image sensing computer and an electronic device.
[0031] As shown in
[0032] Among them, a changing direction of a first threshold voltage V.sub.th1 of the first photosensitive unit 101 when receiving light is opposite to a changing direction of a second threshold voltage V.sub.th2 of the second photosensitive unit 102 when receiving light, so as to implement an in-situ logical operation between light input signals.
[0033] The image sensing computing unit 100 may be a structural unit with a photoelectric conversion function, where both the first photosensitive unit 101 and the second photosensitive unit 102 may be transistor units with photosensitive function.
[0034] The first photosensitive unit 101 and the second photosensitive unit 102 are connected in series with each other, and their respective equivalent resistances in the connected circuit directly affect a voltage division effect of the two in the circuit. A photosensitive unit with a larger equivalent resistance has a larger voltage value of the voltage division. A photosensitive unit with a relatively smaller equivalent resistance has a relatively smaller voltage value of the voltage division. At this time, if these two photosensitive units connected in series may show threshold voltages in different changing directions under their respective light conditions, their corresponding equivalent resistances also have corresponding different changing directions. For example, when the first photosensitive unit 101 is illuminated, the first threshold voltage V.sub.th1 is increased and the equivalent resistance is increased. Correspondingly, when the second photosensitive unit 102 is illuminated, the second threshold voltage V.sub.th2 is decreased and the equivalent resistance is decreased. In this way, different lighting conditions correspond to different voltage division conditions of the two photosensitive units. An output voltage V.sub.out output at an output terminal of the image sensing computing unit 100 may be directly served as a voltage signal output of a corresponding logical operation result without the requirements for additional processing by other operation processing modules, so as to implement in-situ logical operation between light input signals.
[0035] The threshold voltages of the two photosensitive units in the above-mentioned embodiments of the present disclosure change in opposite directions when illuminated, so that their corresponding equivalent resistances change in opposite directions when illuminated. When the two are connected in series, the voltage division relationship between the two will also be different depending on the light conditions of the two. By setting a reasonable voltage comparison value to determine the logical value corresponding to the output voltage value, the in-situ logical operation between light input signals may be implemented.
[0036] Therefore, compared to the situation that the image sensing module in the related art may only be used for photoelectric signal conversion, and the output electrical signal still requires to be further conversion processed by the signal operation processing module in order to ultimately implement the logical operation between light input signals, the image sensing computing unit of embodiments of the present disclosure may directly perform photoelectric conversion while implementing in-situ logical processing function, so that the image sensing computing unit directly outputs an electrical signal representing a corresponding logical operation result, thereby eliminating the signal processing module for traditional logical processing, effectively reducing the complexity of the system and improving the efficiency of light signal processing.
[0037] It should be noted that the image sensing computing unit in the present disclosure may implement in-situ logical operation between light signals, and the input of light signal may discussed with light as a logical value 1 and light-free as a logical value 0. Therefore, those skilled in the art should understand that if light is set as the logical value 0 and light-free is set as the logical value 1, the image sensing computing unit of embodiments of the present disclosure implements the reverse logical operation to the above discussion that light is set as the logical value 1 and light-free is set as the logical value 0, which will not be further repeated in the following text.
[0038] As shown in
[0039] The first buried oxide layer is located below the first transistor.
[0040] The first doped well layer is located below the first buried oxide layer.
[0041] As shown in
[0042] The second buried oxide layer is located below the second transistor.
[0043] The second doped well layer is located below the second buried oxide layer.
[0044] As shown in
[0045] Among them, for the same image sensing computing unit, the structural form of a first photosensitive unit is the same as the structural form of a second photosensitive unit, where the first photosensitive unit is connected in series with the second photosensitive unit, and there may be differences in the specific structural materials and structural functional types of specific structural layers. Thus, it may be ensured that the two may present threshold voltages in different changing directions when exposed to light. Thereby, it is possible to ensure the in-situ logical processing effect between the light signals of the image sensing computing unit of embodiments of the present disclosure.
[0046] As shown in
[0047] The transistor type may be an N-type doped or P-type doped field-effect transistor, such as NMOS and PMOS. The well doped type may be N-type doped and P-type doped well structures. As shown in
[0048] Among them, each transistor may have a gate terminal G, a drain terminal D and a source terminal S. Corresponding doped well layer has a lead terminal B. Specifically, as shown in
[0049] Combined with the structural composition diagram of the photosensitive unit shown in
[0050] As shown in
[0051] As shown in
[0052] As shown in
[0053] As shown in
[0054] Based on the corresponding relationship between the illumination of the photosensitive units of each transistor type mentioned above and the threshold voltage V.sub.TH, combined with the equivalent circuit diagrams of the image sensing computing units of two different photosensitive units and corresponding output results shown in
[0055] As shown in
[0056] The P-n photosensitive unit and the N-n photosensitive unit are connected in series to implement voltage division. The proportion of the equivalent resistance of the PMOS transistor is larger, and the value of the output result V.sub.out is smaller. It is possible to set the input light of the photosensitive unit as the logical value 1, and light-free as the logical value 0.
[0057] Therefore, when the two photosensitive units connected in series are both illuminated, that is, when the light input is 1 1, the output value of the output voltage V.sub.out is the minimum. When only one of the two photosensitive units connected in series mentioned above is illuminated, that is, when the light input is 1 0 and 0 1, the output value of the output voltage V.sub.out takes second place. When the two photosensitive units connected in series mentioned above are not illuminated, that is, when the light input is 0 0, the output value of the output voltage V.sub.out is the maximum.
[0058] It can be seen that the logical value represented by the output voltage V.sub.out of the corresponding image sensing computing unit may be further determined by setting two different voltage comparison values (comparison values 1 and 2 as shown in
[0059] As shown in
[0060] Therefore, the working principle of the image sensing computing unit 600 is similar to that shown in
[0061] It can be seen that by setting two different voltage comparison values (comparison values 3 and 4 as shown in
[0062] Therefore, the above-mentioned image sensing computing unit of embodiments of the present disclosure may include two photosensitive transistor units (UTBB photosensitive transistor units) of ultra-thin bodies with different transistor types and the same well doped type and buried oxide structures, where two photosensitive transistor units are connected in series with each other. Since the two photosensitive units with different transistor types and the same well doped type, the changing direction of the threshold voltage of one of two photosensitive units is opposite to the changing direction of the threshold voltage of the other one of the two photosensitive units when illuminated, so that the changing trends of their equivalent resistances when illuminated are opposite to each other. When the two are connected in series, the voltage division relationship between the two will be different depending on the different illuminating conditions. Therefore, the logical value corresponding to the output voltage value may be determined by setting the voltage comparison value, so as to implement in-situ logical operation between light input signals.
[0063] As shown in
[0064] A drain electrode of the first transistor is connected to a drain electrode of the second transistor.
[0065] A source electrode of the second transistor is grounded.
[0066] A gate electrode of the first transistor is connected to a first gate control voltage, a gate electrode of the second transistor is connected to a second gate control voltage, the first doped well layer is connected to a first well control voltage, and the second doped well layer is connected to a second well control voltage.
[0067] As shown in
[0068] As shown in
[0069] On this basis, the logical value of the output voltage V.sub.out may be further determined by setting a voltage comparison value, so as to implement logical operations such as NOR/NAND between light signals and OR/AND between light signals, without the requirements of additional circuit components such as signal operation processing modules, thereby simplifying the processing system, shortening the time of logical operation, and improving the efficiency of logical operation.
[0070] As shown in
[0071] In operation S801, an exposure operation is performed on the image sensing computing unit in an off state, so that an equivalent resistance of a first photosensitive unit of the image sensing computing unit and/or an equivalent resistance of a second photosensitive unit of the image sensing computing unit change.
[0072] In operation S802, a first gate control voltage of the first photosensitive unit and/or a second gate control voltage of the second photosensitive unit of the image sensing computing unit is controlled after the exposure operation to generate an output voltage of the image sensing computing unit, so as to implement a readout operation for the image sensing computing unit.
[0073] In operation S803, the first gate control voltage of the first photosensitive unit and/or the second gate control voltage of the second photosensitive unit of the image sensing computing unit is controlled after the readout operation, so as to turn off the first photosensitive unit and/or the second photosensitive unit, while a first well control voltage and/or a second well control voltage is controlled, so as to implement a reset operation for the image sensing computing unit.
[0074] As shown in
[0077] With reference to
[0078] As shown in
[0081] With reference to
[0082] As shown in
[0085] With reference to
[0086] Another aspect of the present disclosure provides an image sensing computer, including an image sensing array including the image sensing computing unit mentioned above. The image sensing array may have NM image sensing computing units mentioned above, i.e. with 2NM photosensitive units mentioned above, where two photosensitive units in each image sensing computing unit are connected in series with each other and maintain opposite changing direction in their respective threshold voltage when illuminated, so as to implement an in-situ logical operation between corresponding light signals, and allow the image sensing array to be directly served as an output device for logical voltage without the requirements of additional operation processing modules.
[0087] Yet another aspect of the present disclosure provides an electronic device, including the image sensing computer described above. This electronic device may be a device with at least one of functions of light communication and light imaging, such as light communication laser devices, so as to achieve image perception processing functions such as facial recognition and fingerprint recognition. It may also be a portable electronic device such as a laptop, a computer, an iPad, a smartphone, etc., which may be well applied in fields of monitoring security, human-machine interaction, etc., which will not be specifically restricted.
[0088] At this point, embodiments of the present disclosure have been provided in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
[0089] The specific embodiments mentioned above provide a further detailed explanation of the purpose, technical solution, and beneficial effects of the present disclosure. It should be understood that the above are only specific embodiments of the present disclosure and are not intended to limit it. Within the spirit and principles of the present disclosure, any modifications, equivalent replacements, improvements, etc. made should be included in the scope of protection of the present disclosure.