Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

Hayato Nakashima

Ryu Shimizu

Shigeyuki Okada

Naoki Tanahashi

Yoshio Okayama

Kaori Misawa

Mitsuru Okigawa

Mamoru Arimoto

Yoshinari Ichihashi

Tetsuya Miwa

Keita Kawahara

This image sensor is so formed as to control at least either the potential of a portion of a transfer channel corresponding to a third electrode or the potential of another portion of the transfer channel corresponding to a fourth electrode to be lower than the potentials of portions of the transfer channel corresponding to a first electrode and a second electrode respectively in a signal charge transferring operation and a signal charge increasing operation.

Image sensor and sensor unit

An image sensor includes a charge storage portion for storing and transferring signal charges, a first electrode for forming an electric field storing the signal charges in the charge storage portion, a charge increasing portion for increasing the signal charges stored in the charge storage portion and a second electrode for forming another electric field increasing the signal charges in the charge increasing portion, wherein the quantity of the signal charges storable in the charge storage portion is not less than the quantity of the signal charges storable in the charge increasing portion.

An imaging device includes a first electrode for generating an electric field storing signal charges, a charge multiplication section for multiplying the stored signal charges, a second electrode for generating the electric field in the charge multiplication section, a voltage conversion portion for converting the signal charges into a voltage, a third electrode for transferring the signal charges to the voltage conversion portion, provided between the first electrode and the voltage conversion portion, wherein the second electrode is provided on a side opposite to the third electrode and the voltage conversion portion with respect to the first electrode.

Imaging device including a multiplier electrode

A solid-state image pickup device improvable in photosensitivity also in the vicinity of an end of a substrate is provided. This solid-state image pickup device comprises a photodetection part formed on a substrate, a color filter layer and a lens, formed between the substrate and the color filter for condensing light on the photodetection part, having a lens center deviated from the center of the photodetection part by a prescribed distance.

Solid state image pickup device comprising lenses for condensing light on photodetection parts

On a substrate are sequentially formed a first interconnection, a diffusion barrier filmand a second insulating film, and on the upper surface of the second insulating filmis then formed a sacrificial film. Next, a via holeand an interconnection trenchare formed, and on the sacrificial filmare then formed a barrier metal filmand a copper film. CMP for removing the extraneous copper filmand barrier metal filmare conducted in a two-step process, i. e., the first polishing where polishing is stopped on the surface of the barrier metal filmand the second polishing where the remaining barrier metal filmand the tapered sacrificial filmare polished.

Method of manufacturing a semiconductor device

A video decoding apparatus for decoding encoded video data to continuously produce decoded pictures. The video data includes a series of pictures, each picture contains a series of slices, and each slice contains a series of macroblocks. A dequantizer performs dequantization of the video data based upon a quantization threshold value. A motion-vector restoring circuit restores data for each macroblock. A direct current error detector is provided to detect erroneous macroblocks based upon the dequantized data. A motion-area error detector is provided to detect erroneous macroblocks based upon the restored motion vector data. An erroneous macroblock is replaced by a corresponding macroblock from a preceding picture. Subsequent macroblocks in a slice may also be replaced by corresponding macroblocks from a preceding picture.

Video decoder with functions to detect and process errors in encoded

An MPEG video decoder capable of preventing a buffer for storing a video stream from overflowing and/or underflowing. The video decoding apparatus decodes a coded video bit stream including a series of pictures to produce decoded pictures. The video decoding apparatus includes: a bit buffer for temporarily storing the video bit stream, a decoding circuit for receiving the video bit stream output from the bit buffer and decoding the video bit stream to produce decoded pictures, and a video bit stream control circuit for controlling an amount of the video bit stream to be supplied to the decoding circuit from the bit buffer based on an amount of data of the video bit stream stored in the bit buffer.

Video decoder capable of controlling encoded video data

Discrete cosine transform circuits suitable for inverse discrete cosine transform (IDCT) or forward discrete cosine transform (FDCT) are disclosed. An IDCT circuit includes a group of multipliers and a group of adders/subtracters. The multipliers receive plural pieces of input data which are externally supplied in parallel. Each multiplier has a cosine constant to multiply to the received input data. The adders/subtracters receive multiplication results from the multipliers and perform addition/subtraction thereon to produce output data, which is the result of inverse discrete cosine transform of the input data. An FDCT circuit includes a group of input-stage adders/subtracters, a group of multipliers, and a group of output-stage adders. The input-stage adders/subtracters perform addition/subtraction on input data which are externally supplied in parallel. Computation results of the input-stage adders/subtracters is supplied to the multipliers. The output-stage adders receive multiplication results from the multipliers and produce output data, which is the result of forward discrete cosine transform of the input data. The discrete cosine transform circuits are particularly suitable for use in MPEG video encoders/decoders.

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Anpachi-gun, Japan

Hayato Nakashima