Arnold&richter Cine Technik Gmbh&co. Betriebs Kg

Uwe Wessely

Michael Cieslinski

Achim Oehler

The invention relates to an image sensor, in particular to a CMOS image sensor, for digital cameras, having a plurality of pixels arranged in rows and columns, wherein the respective pixel comprises: a light sensitive detector element to generate electrical charge from incident light during an exposure procedure, a readout node, a transfer gate to which a transfer control pulse can be applied to allow a charge transfer from the detector element to the readout node, and a reset device to reset a charge present in the readout node to a reference value. The image sensor furthermore has a control device for the control of the transfer gate and of the of the reset device of the respective pixel. The control device is designed so that the respective pixel is read out in a plurality of readout steps during the ongoing charge generation in a single exposure procedure, and indeed such that a respective transfer control pulse is applied to the transfer gate for each of the plurality of readout steps and a respective readout result is then produced; wherein the reset device is activated between the transfer control pulses of the respective exposure procedure; and wherein only the last transfer control pulse enables a complete charge transfer of the respective charge present in the detector element to the readout node.

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Munich, Germany

Uwe Wessely