Zeeann Co., Ltd.

Jawoong Lee

Jong Beom Choi

Byounghwan Choi, I

Junhee Cho

Jun Hee Cho

Disclosed is a CMOS image sensor comprising a unit pixel which includes a photodetector (e.g., photodiode); an erasing transistor which, being connected to the photodetector, controls the exposure integration time of the photodetector by time division; a charge storage (e.g., floating diffusion region) in which the charge accumulated in the photodetector is transferred and stored; and a transfer transistor which, being connected between the photodetector and the charge storage, transfers the charge accumulated in the photodetector to the charge storage; wherein a first signal charge accumulated in the photodetector during the first exposure integration time is transferred to the charge storage and stored therein, and the second signal charge is accumulated in the photodetector during the second exposure integration time, thereby sequentially reading out signals in response to the first signal charge and the second signal charge at a time of sampling out the information on signal charge stored in the unit pixel.

Wide dynamic range CMOS image sensor and image sensing method

Disclosed are a CMOS image sensor having a wide dynamic range and a sensing method thereof. Each unit pixel of the CMOS image sensor of the present invention includes multiple processing units, so that one shuttering section for the image generation of one image frame can be divided into multiple sections to separately shutter and sample the divided sections by each processing unit. Thus, the image sensor of the present invention enables many shuttering actions to be performed in the multiple processing units, respectively, and the multiple processing units to separately sample each floating diffusion voltage caused by the shuttering actions, thereby realizing a wide dynamic range.

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Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

Jawoong Lee