Dalsa Corporation

International Business Machines Corporation

Canadian Patents & Development Ltd.

Savvas G Chamberlain

William D Washkurak

Eugene S Schlig

Keith S Pennington

Lawrence G Heller

Gene D Rohrer

Stacy R Kamasz

Simon Gareth Ingram

Paul Thomas Jenkins

Mike Miethig

Brian C Doody

Sheldon Hood

Daryl Prince

Chettypalayam R Selvakumar

David H Harper

A CCD structure includes a substrate in which a plurality of buried channels have been formed and a heat conductor disposed transversely to the buried channels and defining a longitudinal direction. A first channel defines a channel direction. The heat conductor includes a first segment and a second segment separated by a gap from the first segment. The heat conductor further includes a tab connected to the first segment. In the structure the tab is characterized by an extent along a direction parallel to the longitudinal direction that is equal to an extent of the gap along the longitudinal direction, an extent along a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction that is equal to a width of the heat conductor, and a shape that is a parallelogram, preferrably a rectangle. In the structure the gap is characterized by a gap predetermined shape, size and orientation, and the tab is characterized by a tab predetermined shape, size and orientation. The tab predetermined shape, size and orientation is equal to the gap predetermined shape, size and orientation, respectively.

CCD sensor with diagonal heat conducting straps

A switched CCD electrode photodetector includes a substrate made of first semi-conductor type, a drain made of a second semi-conductor type formed in the substrate, a collection well made of the second semi-conductor type formed in the substrate, and a switched CCD electrode resistor formed between the drain and the collection well. The collection well is operable in cooperation with a photosensitive region. The switched CCD electrode resistor includes a channel region defined in the substrate and having a first end disposed adjacent to the collection well and a second end disposed adjacent to the drain. The switched CCD electrode resistor also includes a first electrode insulatively spaced from and disposed over the first end and a second electrode insulatively spaced from and disposed over the second end.

Switched CCD electrode photodetector

A dual mode high frequency output structure for a CCD image sensor has a differencing mode for determining a difference between a charge of successive charge packets of a first pulse train outputted from a shift register of the CCD image sensor and a non-differencing mode for outputting a video signal from the shift register of the CCD image sensor. The structure comprises a first series of CCD gates, a second series of CCD gates, an output well potential, a first clock for creating and shifting a first barrier and gradient in the first series of CCD gates for transferring a charge packet from the shift register to the output well, a second clock for creating and shifting a second barrier and gradient in the second series of CCD gates for transferring the charge packet from the output well potential to an output drain, an amplifier for amplifying an output voltage from the output well potential, a pre-set clock for pre-setting the amplifier to a pre-set voltage while the charge packet is in the output well potential until the charge packet is transferred therefrom. An asynchronous pass of successive charge packets through the output well produces the output voltage at the output well which is proportional to the difference between charges of the successive charge packets. A synchronous pass of the charge packets produces the output voltage for the video signal.

Dual mode on-chip high frequency output structure with pixel video

Silicon-germanium devices including MOSFETs, photogates and photodiodes, are produced by implanting the Si or polycrystalline silicon substrate with Ge.sup.+, to realize active SiGe regions within Si which are substantially free from defects, at an appropriate point in the fabrication by conventional techniques.

Method for making silicon-germanium devices using germanium implantation

A wide dynamic range photodetector comprising a photosensitive region for generating signal electrons in response to being illuminated, a collection region for storing the signal electrons generated within the photosensitive region, a shift register for receiving and outputing the signal electrons from the collection region, and a transfer gate intermediate the photosensitive region and the collection region for alternately facilitating transfer of the signal electrons from the photosensitive region for storage in the collection region, and isolating the photosensitive region from the collection region while the signal electrons are being output via the shift register.

High photosensitivity and high speed wide dynamic range CCD image sensor

An electronically and mechanically expandable camera in which a tubular metal casing having removable front and back plates has a CCD image sensor mounted on a secondary front plate removably received within the casing for a direct thermal path to the casing. A driver board is removably receivable at a position between the secondary front plate and the back plate. A logic board is removably receivable at a position between the driver board and the back plate. The camera's functions may be expanded or altered by adding option electronic board modules between the logic board and the back plate of the camera, or by reconfiguring the logic board or by adding a different image sensor. All of the components within the camera, all of the enclosure elements and all of the mounting hardware used in the camera can be easily and conveniently changed as desired.

Electronically expandable modular CCD camera

Two unknown charge packets are stored in adjacent potential wells of equal depth in a charge coupled device. The charge packets are then merged by changing the potential on an intermediate merge electrode to remove a potential barrier between the two wells. The potential barrier is then re-established, and a current is induced through one of the electrodes which established the two wells of equal depth, and that current is integrated as a measure of the original absolute difference between the two charge packets.

Absolute charge difference detection method and structure for a charge

The Laplacian operator is obtained by using CCD architecture to provide positive and negative weights to respective inputs and then combining the weighted signals.

On-chip CCD realization of the Laplacian operator for image signal

This CCD structure comprises a substrate floating diffusion region from which an output signal is taken and a drain diffusion spaced apart from the output diffusion and from which the charge is returned. An electrode to be pulsed is placed immediately preceding the floating diffusion and a plurality of electrodes is interposed between the two diffusions. The first such electrode beyond the output floating diffusion is operated as a reset pulse gate electrode and the last such electrode before the drain diffusion is operated as a drain pulse gate electrode, while the intermediate electrode(s) have phased clock pulses applied thereto in synchronism with such phased clock pulses applied to other electrodes of the overall CCD circuit arrangement. The preceding pulsed electrode serves to extend the lower limit of the potential change of the floating diffusion. The interposed electrodes permit signal charge to be transferred out of the floating diffusion into a gate-induced potential well instead of directly into the drain diffusion, extending the upper limit of potential change of the floating diffusion. Further, the drain gate isolates the drain diffusion from the preceding final CCD stages thereby obviating 'charge sloshing'.

Charge coupled device output circuit structure

An integrable photodetector element of large dynamic range includes a silicon substrate which has a resistivity of between 1 and 100 ohm-cm. The substrate is of one conductivity type. In the substrate there is an electrically floating photosensitive diffusion region and a second diffusion region that is spaced apart from the electrically floating region by means of a channel in the substrate. The two diffusion regions are of the same conductivity type and of opposite conductivity type to that of the substrate. A metal-insulator-semiconductor gate spans the substrate between the regions and over the channel. The gate is electrically connected to the electrically floating region, and the second region is reverse biased with respect to the substrate. Except for the photosensitive diffusion region, the element is shielded against penetration by visible light. The length of the channel between the regions, the resistivity of the substrate, the magnitude of the reverse bias and the depth of the diffusion regions is selected so that the potential barrier between the electrically floating region and the channel is low enough that electrons which are photogenerated in response to visible light impinging on the electrically floating region can be injected therefrom into the channel to be collected by the second diffusion region. As a result of this the voltage of the electrically floating region varies logarithmically with changes in visible light incident thereon.

Integrable large dynamic range photodetector element for linear and area

Image detectors and scanners employing n.sup.+ - p photodiodes as the photosensitive element tend to have a low blue color response relative to the red color output due to loss of photogenerated carriers near the diode surface because of surface recombination, and because of a small minority carrier lifetime due to the high doping level of the n-region relative to the acceptor doping density of the substrate. The surface recombination and low lifetime cause loss of quantum efficiency at wavelengths less than 4200 A, which is the blue region. An improved photodiode is provided including a silicon p substrate, a junction formed by a phosphorous diffusion of low doping density, and a high dose of arsenic or phosphorous ion implantation to provide a shallow implant to create a built-in electric field which repels the photogenerated minority carriers away from the surface and towards the junction to be collected.

Photodiode structure having an enhanced blue color response

A silicon photoelement imager which includes a photogeneration channel consisting of a layer of doped semiconductor material, located on a support substrate having a layer of oppositely doped semiconductor material. The photogeneration channel, in which carriers are photogenerated, has an optimum effective thickness of d/.pi., where d is the center to center spacing of the photoelements; while the support substrate is sufficiently thick to provide strength and rigidity to the device. The support substrate layer is further biased with respect to the photogeneration channel so as to drain and prevent any carriers produced in the support substrate from entering the photogeneration channel. This photogeneration channel substrate structure can be used to improve the spatial resolution of CCD and MOSFET imagers.

Photogeneration channel in front illuminated solid state silicon imaging

A solid-state charge-coupled photoconductor for image scanning including a p-type substrate having a silicon dioxide layer on the surface thereof with the exception of one or more areas in which an n+ diffusion area is located. A polysilicon gate is located over the silicon dioxide layer and a second silicon dioxide layer is located over the polysilicon layer and the n+ diffusion area except for a portion where a first aluminum contact window is provided which extends through the second silicon dioxide layer to the surface of the n+ diffusion area and where a second aluminum contact window extends through the second polysilicon gate to the surface of the polysilicon gate. The photosensitivity of the device is electronically controlled due to the relatively small n+ layer which is reversed biased with respect to the larger gate area.

Growing community of inventors

Waterloo, Canada

Savvas G Chamberlain