Micron Technology Incorporated

Steve Huang

Daniel A Van Blerkom

Sandor L Barna

Giuseppe Rossi

Lin Ping Ang

A reference voltage generator for use in an image sensor provides a reference voltage to an S/H block during a pixel read-out operation and another reference voltage to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) during a digitization operation. The reference voltage generator includes a variable voltage generator, a sample-and-hold circuit to sample a reference voltage prior to the pixel read-out operation or the digitization operation, and a buffer amplifier to drive the appropriate reference voltage to the relatively high impedance load presented by the S/H block and the variable impedance load provided by the ADC.

Reference voltage stabilization in CMOS sensors

A row driver according to an embodiment drives a shared row-reset bus to one of a select voltage and a boosted voltage to select a row for readout and to reset the pixels in the row, respectively. The boosted voltage is higher than the select voltage. A row select circuit includes PMOS transistors through which a path may be opened between a supply line carrying the select voltage and the bus. A reset enable circuit includes PMOS transistors through which a path may be opened between a supply line carrying the boosted voltage and the bus. In order to prevent a parasitic diode leakage between the two supply lines during reset, the n-wells of the PMOS transistors in the row select circuit may be coupled to the supply line carrying the boost voltage.

Row driver circuit for a sensor including a shared row-reset bus and a charge pump boosting circuit

Systems and techniques to readout array-based analog data with reduced power requirements and reduced fixed pattern noise. An image sensor on an integrated circuit may include a sensor array to provide array-based analog data, a parallel sampling circuitry to receive the array-based analog data in parallel, a pipelined amplification circuitry to serially amplify the received array-based analog data, and an analog-to-digital converter to convert the amplified array-based analog data into digital data.

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Arcadia, CA, United States of America

Steve Huang