Commissariat &#xc0; L'&#xc9;nergie Atomique Et Aux &#xc9;nergies Alternatives

E2v Semiconductors

Commissariat a L'energie Atomique Et Aux Energies Alternatives

Jean-Alain Nicolas

Richard Morisson

Jean-Pierre Rostaing

Bertrand Dupont

Nicolas Monnier

An imaging device including at least one detection element formed of a photodetector associated with and connected to a circuit for reading signals generated by the photodetector. The circuit is provided with an integration stage equipped with an integration capacitor for integrating charges coming from the photodetector, a pulse detection stage for detecting current pulses produced by the photodetector, and a bias stage. The circuit is further provided with an intermediate stage arranged between the bias stage and between respectively the integration stage and the pulse detection stage, the intermediate stage being provided with transistors forming a current mirror and producing on an input branch of the integration stage an image current of a given current delivered by the direct injection transistor, the intermediate stage being configured to convert the given current into a potential on an input node of the pulse detection stage.

Asynchronous laser pulse detection and passive imaging

Pixel for infrared imager integrating a BDI bias and an active reset

An imaging pixel formed by a photodetector connected to a reading circuit comprising:

Calibration of an imaging IWR digital pixel

External biasing control unit for a reading circuit of an infrared photodetector element, the control unit being able to adopt:

IR pixel reconfigurable in DI or BDI mode

A summing circuit, including a capacitor, a switching circuit capable of connecting the capacitor between a first node (ana) and a second node (ref), between a third node and the second node in a first connection direction or between the third node and the second node in a second connection direction, an integrator coupled to the third node, a hysteresis comparator coupled to the output of the integrator, and a counter coupled to the output of the hysteresis comparator.

Summing circuit

The invention relates to an integrated circuit comprising a succession of N identical elementary circuits (CE, CE, . . . CE), juxtaposed in the order of their rank j varying from 1 to N, N being at least equal to 50, and all having to receive two reference potentials Vref and Vsupplied by two conductors. An upstream input of the second conductor is situated geographically on the side of the rank 1 of the succession of juxtaposed circuits, and an upstream input of the first conductor is situated geographically on the side of the rank N of the succession of juxtaposed circuits. This reduces the error in the potential difference applied to the elementary circuits all along the succession, an error that originates from the non-zero resistance of the conductors. The integrated circuit is applicable to analog-digital converters or digital-analog converters with high resolution.

Integrated circuit including a large number of identical elementary circuits powered in parallel

The invention relates to fast, high resolution, analog digital converters, and more particularly those which possess at least one conversion stage of 'flash' type. The converter according to the invention uses N differential amplifiers with four inputs. The amplifier of rank j receives the input voltage to be converted V&#x2212;Von two first inputs, and a reference potential difference on two other inputs. The reference potential difference is obtained between two taps of networks of resistors that are identical operating in parallel and supplied between a high voltage source and a low current source; the taps for an amplifier are respectively a tap Pof rank j of a first network and a tap P'of rank N&#x2212;j+1 of a second network. This reduces the first and second order non-linearity effects due to the fact that the differential amplifiers consume an input current tapped off from the networks of resistors.

Growing community of inventors

Grenoble, France

Jean-Alain Nicolas