Hynix Semiconductor Inc.

Hyundai Electronics Industries Co. Ltd.

Hyun-Eun Kim

Oh-Bong Kwon

Suk-Joong Lee

Gyu-Tae Hwang

An apparatus and method for concealing defective pixels in image sensors having a test mode. The image sensing apparatus includes a sensing module for capturing an image from an object, wherein the sensing module includes a plurality of pixels and a light source for detecting a defect of the pixel and wherein the light source is turned on or off for a test mode; a controller for determining whether there are any detective pixels in an image frame received from the sensing module using the light source and for storing a position about defective pixels; and an image concealment unit for comparing a position of the detected defective pixels with a position of the image frame of the object and for concealing the detected defective pixels.

Apparatus and method for concealing defective pixels in image sensors having test mode

Disclosed is an apparatus for converting an analog image data into a digital image data in a CMOS image sensor including a pixel array having M (row line)&#xd7;N (column line) color pixels, wherein the color pixels include a first color pixel for sensing a first color, a second color pixel for sensing a second color and a third pixel for sensing a third color. The apparatus includes an analog reference voltage generating unit for generating different analog reference voltages according to the analog image data of the color pixels, wherein the different analog reference voltage has different value and different decline rate, a selecting unit, in response to a select control signal, for selecting one of the corresponding analog reference voltages according to the color pixels, and a comparing unit for comparing the analog reference voltage and the analog image data to generate the digital image data corresponding to the color pixels, whereby a conversion operation of the analog image data into the digital image data is differently carried out according to the color characteristic.

Apparatus for converting analog image data into digital image data in CMOS image sensor

An apparatus for panning and scaling a window in CMOS image sensor is described. The apparatus comprises a pixel array having a plurality of unit pixels, a row driving part, an analog-digital converting part, an address generating part for generating a row address and a column address for the panning and scaling, and a line buffering part for receiving the digital pixel data outputted from the analog-digital converting part and outputting a pixel data according to the column address. According to the apparatus, CMOS image sensor can directly extract a pixel data of a desired resolution and scale offset.

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Ichon-shi, South Korea

Hyun-Eun Kim