International Business Machines Corporation

Ying L Yao

Eugene S Schlig

Hon-Sum Philip Wong

A charge-coupled device having a three-dimensional trench structure that achieves a highly effective sensing and storage area in a CCD imager while maintaining a small cell layout area. The trench CCD device includes a plurality of trench electrodes etched in the surface of the device, with surface electrodes in between. The trenches are shaped to facilitate charge transfer along their sidewalls and to maximize trench surface area.

Trench charge-coupled device

An electronic imaging system develops red, green and blue images of a document in a single pass of the document through the system. The system includes an image sensor which has three time delay and integration (TDI) sensor arrays. Each sensor array is configured to have two optically masked rows of charge coupled devices (CCD's) for every row of CCD's that is used for imaging. The sensor arrays are arranged so that the first row of imaging CCD's on any two successive arrays are separated by a distance of an integer, K, times three times the height of a picture element (pel) of the image of the document that is projected onto the image sensor, plus or minus one pel height. The spectral component of the image of the document that is projected onto the image sensor is changed in sequence from red, to green, to blue. As the spectral component projected onto the image sensor is changed, the image of the document is scanned down the image sensor by a distance of one pel height. By this scheme, each line of pels in the document is imaged in each of the sensor arrays in a respectively different spectral component. A document may be imaged in all three colors in a single pass through the system without having dedicated filters for each of the separate sensor arrays.

Single-scan time delay and integration color imaging system

In the present invention, a method is set forth for the generation of an average signal for the pels of a neighborhood, i.e., a matrix array, without corrupting individual pel values. The system which performs the method includes a metering circuit, an output register, and a filtering array. The metering circuit transfers a fixed proportion of charge signals representing a pel row in parallel from the CCD array to the filtering array. The remaining charge signals remain in an output register, which outputs them as representations of the individual pels of the image. One type of filtering operates by averaging over non-overlapping regions within the image. Charge signals which have been transferred by the metering circuit are added together along the vertical axis and are transferred to a vertical average register, whereupon, this value is serially shifted out of the vertical average register and into a horizontal summer. The horizontal summer adds the output charge along the horizontal axis. This results in an average of the individual pel values within a region of the image which is outputted form the device. Another type of filtering operates by averaging overlapping windows within the image. The charge signals from the metering circuit are split into multiple portions, each of which contributes to a different vertical sum for an averaging window. The vertical sum charge signals are split into multiple portions, each of which contributes to the area sum for an averaging window, which is created by horizontal summing performed in parallel. The resulting area averages are outputted.

Averaging array for CCD imagers

A data bus is a common interconnection which serves as a two-way data link between inputs and outputs of several logic blocks in a time shared manner. A data bus arrangement is disclosed which can be utilized to interconnect a plurality of ports with each other and which utilize Josephson junction devices. Each of a plurality of ports represents the output from a computer or other logic circuit and these outputs represent inputs on control lines associated with each Josephson device which switch it. Each Josephson device is separately energized from its own current source and, upon switching, diverts current down a transmission line which has an impedance, Z.sub.o. In a single wire-over ground plane embodiment, all of the transmission lines are connected to a single node in a star arrangement. A terminating resistor which terminates each of the lines in a value of resistance equal to Z.sub.o is disposed in series in the transmission line and is intended to absorb signals coming from any port so there is no reflection of incoming signals back along the transmission line. From the node at which all the transmission lines are connected, a signal generated at one port, for example, passes in parallel to each of the other ports. There, depending on whether or not a sensing Josephson junction which is associated with each transmission line is enabled, the signal is sensed at a selected sensing junction. The present approach utilizes the fact that, when an input junction is in the unactuated state, it represents a short circuit presenting no internal impedance to the incoming current which can then be absorbed in a resistance which, in spite of the presence of the switchable device, remains as a termination equal in resistance to the characteristic impedance of the transmission line. A double wire over ground plane or a wire above and below ground plane embodiment is also shown, wherein the two wires or transmission lines associated with each input port are connected to a pair of nodes. Each line has the same characteristic impedance and each is terminated by a resistance equal to the characteristic impedance. In this arrangement, the resulting signal strength available for sensing can be two times the strength of the single wire embodiment, due to a reversal of the transmission line in the neighborhood of a sense gate.

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Millwood, NY, United States of America

Ying L Yao