Shizuoka University

Sony Corporation

Semiconductor Technology Academic Research Center

Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Ntn Corporation

Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Gunma University

Hamamatsu Foundation for Science and Technology Promotion

Shoji Kawahito

Nobuo Nakamura

Keita Yasutomi

Hiroki Sato

Mizuho Higashi

Yasuhide Shimizu

Hirofumi Sumi

Kuniyuki Tani

Koji Sushihara

Akira Kurauchi

Daisuke Miyazaki

Toru Takahashi

Koichiro Mashiko

Isamu Takai

Min-Woong Seo

Mitsuru Homma

Kazutaka Honda

Takashi Watanabe

Chiaki Aoyama

Hirotomo Ishii

Tomonari Sawada

Osamu Kobayashi

Masato Futagawa

Hiromasa Oku

Keigo Isobe

Zheng Liu

Michinori Ando

Sung Wook Jung

Takahiro Miki

Takashi Morie

Hiroaki Takeshita

Yuya Shirakawa

Jong-ho Park

Satoshi Aoyama

Sangman Han

Keiichiro Kagawa

Kaita Imai

A distance image sensor including a light source that generates pulsed light, a light source control means that controls the light source, a pixel circuit including a photoelectric conversion region, charge reading regions, a charge discharging region, and control electrodes, a charge transfer control means that outputs control pulses to the control electrodes, and a distance calculation means that reads voltages of the charge reading regions as detection signals and repeatedly calculates a distance on the basis of the detection signals. The charge transfer control means sets a timing at which the control pulse is output to be before a timing at which the pulsed light is generated.

Distance image measuring device

A distance image sensor includes a light source that generates pulsed light, a light source controller that controls the light source, a pixel circuit including a photoelectric conversion region, charge readout regions, and control electrodes, a charge transfer controller that sequentially applies control pulses to the control electrodes, a signal readout circuit that reads out detection signals of an amount of charge transferred to the charge readout regions and a distance calculator that repeatedly calculates a distance from a difference value between two amounts of charge on the basis of the signals, the light source controller changes generation timing of the pulsed light according to a pseudo random number, and the charge transfer controller changes timings of the application of two control pulses for transferring charge corresponding to the two amounts of charge according to the pseudo random number so that the timings are replaced with each other.

Pseudo random number pulse control for distance measurement

An imaging device includes a varifocal lens and an imaging sensor which outputs a signal corresponding to light. The imaging sensor includes a photoelectric conversion unit which converts light into an electric charge, electric charge reading regions, transfer control electrodes, a gate control circuit which sequentially applies control signals to the transfer control electrodes to correspond to the position of the focal point of the varifocal lens, and a reading circuit which outputs a signal corresponding to the amount of the electric charge transferred to the electric charge reading regions. The gate control circuit repeats an operation of outputting each of the control signals when the position of the focal point is located in the focal ranges during a frame period.

Imaging device

A distance image sensor includes a light source, a light source control means for controlling the light source, a pixel circuit including a photoelectric conversion region, charge readout regions, and control electrodes, a charge transfer control means for sequentially applying a control pulse to the control electrodes, and a distance calculation means for reading voltages of the charge readout regions as detection signals and repeatedly calculating a distance on the basis of the detection signals, and the distance calculation means calculates a sum value of signal components of charge generated from the pulsed light other than background light among the detection signals, calculates a distance from the detection signals using a predetermined equation when the sum value exceeds a first threshold value, and invalidates the calculation of the distance when the sum value does not exceed the first threshold value.

Distance-image-measuring apparatus and distance-image-measuring method

A distance image sensor includes a light source that generates pulsed light, a light source control means for controlling the light source, a pixel circuit including a photoelectric conversion region, charge readout regions, a charge discharge region, and control electrodes, a charge transfer control means for sequentially applying a control pulse to the control electrodes, and a distance calculation means for reading voltages of the charge readout regions as detection signals and repeatedly calculating a distance on the basis of the detection signals, and the charge transfer control means sets timings of the control pulses so that delay times of the control pulses with respect to a generation timing of the pulsed light is shifted to a time differing between the four types of subframe periods in one frame period.

Distance image measurement device and distance image measurement method

A soil sensor includes a current supply unit, an electrode disposed in soil, and a processing unit that obtains a water content and a total ion concentration in the soil. The processing unit includes an information conversion unit that converts a first time and a second time until the measured voltage reaches first threshold voltages and second threshold voltages into frequency information using the temporal change of the measured voltage, an impedance calculation unit that obtains the impedance of the soil, a water content calculation unit that obtains the water content using the impedance, and a total ion concentration calculation unit that obtains the total ion concentration using the impedance.

Soil sensor and soil measurement method

A charge-modulation element encompasses a p-type photoelectric-conversion layer, a n-type surface-buried region buried in an upper portion of the photoelectric-conversion layer configured to implement a photodiode with the photoelectric-conversion layer, a n-type modulation region buried in another part of the upper portion of the photoelectric-conversion layer configured to implement a part of the photodiode with the photoelectric-conversion layer, potential-control regions assigned in one of divided areas, n-type charge-accumulation regions configured to accumulate signal charges generated in the photodiode. Potentials in the modulation region and the surface-buried region are controlled by route-select signals applied to the potential-control regions so as to select one of the charge-transport routes, which transfers the signal charges toward one of the charge-accumulation regions.

Charge modulation element and solid-state imaging device

A photoelectric conversion element encompasses a depletion-layer extension-promotion region having a p-type upper layer, a p-type photoelectric conversion layer in contact with the depletion-layer extension-promotion region, and an n-type surface-buried region buried in an upper portion of the photoelectric conversion layer, configured to implement a photodiode together with the photoelectric conversion layer. A first p-well is surrounded by a first n-tab, the first n-tab is surrounded by a second p-well, the second p-well is surrounded by a second n-tab, and the second n-tab is surrounded by a third p-well. An injection-blocking element blocks injection of carriers of opposite conductivity type to signal charges from the second p-well into the photoelectric conversion layer, and the inside of the photoelectric conversion layer is depleted by a voltage applied to the depletion-layer extension-promotion region.

Photoelectric conversion element and solid-state imaging device

An image sensor controls the gain of a pixel signal on a pixel-by-pixel basis and extends a dynamic range while maintaining a S/N ratio at a favorable level. A column unit in an image sensor is independently detects a level of each pixel signal and independently sets a gain for level of the signal. A photoelectric converting region unit has pixels arranged two-dimensionally with a vertical signal line for each pixel column to output each pixel signal. The column unit is on an output side of the vertical signal line. The column unit for each pixel column has a pixel signal level detecting circuit, a programmable gain control, a sample and hold (S/H) circuit. Gain correction is performed according to a result of a detected level of the pixel signal.

Solid-state image pickup device and control method thereof

An A/D converterincludes a front stage A/D conversion unit () including a first A/D conversion unit () that receives an analog signal from a CMOS image sensor () and generates a first digital value (D) and a first residual analog signal (V) through a folding integration A/D conversion operation, and a second A/D conversion unit () that receives a first residual analog signal (V) from the first A/D conversion unit () and generates a second digital value (D) and a second residual analog signal (V) through a cyclic A/D conversion operation, and a rear stage A/D conversion unit () that receives the second residual analog signal (V) from the front stage A/D conversion unit () and generates a third digital value (D) through an acyclic A/D conversion operation.

A/D converter

The present invention provides a photoelectric conversion element and a solid-state image sensor, having a simple structure, a wide dynamic range, a high speed and a high sensibility, which includes a principal layer of a first conductivity type, a surface-buried region of a second conductivity type, selectively buried in an upper portion of the principal layer so as to implements a photodiode with the principal layer, a first charge-accumulation region of the second conductivity type, buried in the upper portion of the principal layer configured to accumulate first signal charges transferred from the surface-buried region, generated by the photodiode, and a second charge-accumulation region of the second conductivity type, buried in the principal layer configured to accumulate second signal charges transferred from the surface-buried region, generated by the photodiode, wherein a process including a first period, in which the first signal charges are transferred from the surface-buried region to the first charge-accumulation region, and a second period shorter than the first period, in which the second signal charges are transferred from the surface-buried region to the second charge-accumulation region is repeated multiple times in one frame period.

Photoelectric conversion element and solid-state image pickup device

In a photoelectric-conversion element having a large light receiving region for a high-speed transfer, and a solid-state image sensor including the photoelectric-conversion element, the photoelectric-conversion element includes first to eighth charge read-out regions, which are provided at positions symmetric with respect to a center position of a light receiving region and first to eighth field-control electrodes, which are arranged on both sides of charge-transport paths extending from the center position of the light receiving region to the first to eighth charge read-out regions, respectively, and change depletion potentials of the charge-transport paths and the octuple charge-transfer channels.

Photoelectric conversion element and solid-state image capturing device

A semiconductor element includes a semiconductor region () of a first conductivity type, a buried charge-generation region () of a second conductivity type, buried in an upper portion of the semiconductor region () to implement a photodiode (D) together with the semiconductor region () to generate charges, a charge-readout region () of the second conductivity type, provided in the semiconductor region () to accumulate the charges transferred from the buried charge-generation region (), and a reset-performing region () of the second conductivity type, provided in the semiconductor region (), a variable voltage is applied to the reset-performing region () to change the height of a potential barrier generated in the semiconductor region () sandwiched between the charge-readout region () and the reset-performing region () to exhaust the charges accumulated in the charge-readout region (). The semiconductor element has a high pixel conversion gain, ultralow noise of a photon counting level and implements a solid-state imaging device.

Semiconductor element and solid-state imaging device

A range sensor includes: an n-type surface-buried region selectively buried in an upper portion of a pixel layer to implement a photodiode and extending from a light-receiving area toward plural portions shielded by a shielding plate along the upper portion of the pixel layer so as to provide a plurality of branches; n-type charge-accumulation regions having a higher impurity concentration than the surface-buried region; a plurality of transfer gate electrodes provided adjacent to the charge-accumulation regions; and an n-type guide region having a higher impurity concentration than the surface-buried region and a lower impurity concentration than the charge-accumulation regions, and provided with one end below an aperture of the shielding plate and other ends extending to a part of the respective transfer gate electrodes.

Range sensor and solid-state imaging device

A charge-modulation element includes a first charge-accumulation region, a second charge-accumulation region, a third charge-accumulation region, and a fourth charge-accumulation region, provided symmetric with respect to a center position of a light-receiving area, and a first field-control electrode pair, a second field-control electrode pair, a third field-control electrode pair, and a fourth field-control electrode pair, arranged on both sides of respective charge transport paths, for changing depletion potentials of the charge transport paths, which extend from the center position of the light-receiving area to the first charge-accumulation region, the second charge-accumulation region, the third charge-accumulation region, and the fourth charge-accumulation region.

Growing community of inventors

Hamamatsu, Japan

Shoji Kawahito