Eastman-kodak Company

Georgia R Torok

Win-Chyi Chang

Constantine N Anagnostopoulos

Eric Gordon Stevens

An apparatus for capturing an image in accordance with the invention includes a full frame charge coupled device with a photosensitive layer and a mask covering a portion of said photosensitive layer with a plurality of apertures. The apparatus also includes an exposure controller for controlling the exposure of the photosensitive layer to the image to be captured and also a shifter for shifting either the image or the full frame charge coupled device to expose a different portion of the image to the photosensitive layer through the apertures. With this invention, a high resolution image can be captured with a full frame CCD image sensor, without loss of resolution. As a result, a lower cost imaging apparatus can be obtained without loss of resolution.

Integrated apertures on a full frame CCD image sensor

Solid-state image sensors, in general, comprise a photodetector for detecting radiation from the image and converting the radiation to charge carriers, and transfer means for carrying the charge carriers to an output circuit. One type of solid-state image sensor uses a CCD as both the photodetector and the transfer means. The solid-state image sensor generally includes a plurality of the CCD's arranged in spaced parallel relation to form an array. The image sensor of this disclosure utilizes only one antiblooming lateral overflow barrier. The excess signal charge of phase 1 flows into the preceding phase 2 and is saved. This eliminates the overflow barrier of phase 1 so that blooming protection is via the overflow barrier of the preceding phase 2. This results in an image sensor with blooming protection and increased charge capacity.

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Fairport, NY, United States of America

Georgia R Torok