Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Omnivision Technologies, Inc.

Nippon Hoso' Kyokai

Other

Tokyo Shibaura Denki Kabushiki Kaisha

Yoshiyuki Matsunaga

Makoto Inagaki

Masashi Murakami

Nobuo Nakamura

Shinji Ohsawa

Hirofumi Yamashita

Yoshihiro Sato

Kazuko Nishimura

Junji Hirase

Yutaka Abe

Yukio Endo

Nozomu Harada

Ryohei Miyagawa

Keiji Mabuchi

Lindsay Alexander Grant

Hiroki Miura

Yutaka Hirose

Motonori Ishii

Masayuki Masuyama

Takahiro Yamamoto

Miwako Doi

Nagataka Tanaka

Shunichi Numazaki

Mikiya Uchida

Takumi Yamaguchi

Shigetaka Kasuga

Michio Sasaki

Sohei Manabe

Makoto Yarino

Syouji Tanaka

Akira Morishita

Tokuhiko Tamaki

Takahiko Murata

Yoshitaka Egawa

Yoshihisa Kato

Naoko Umeki

Hidenori Shibata

Kunihiko Hara

Yoshiyuki Ohmori

Yoriko Tanaka

Yasuaki Nishida

Hiroki Nagasaki

Nahoko Endo

Keisuke Yazawa

Daisuke Ueda

Sanshiro Shishido

Hiroshi Yoshida

Takayoshi Yamada

Ikuko Inoue

Kazuyuki Inokuma

Okio Yoshida

Yoshihisa Minami

Ryota Sakaida

Mamoru Iesaka

Fumio Izawa

Takahiro Muroshima

Makoto Hoshino

Yuuichi Inaba

Shigeo Yoshikawa

Atsushi Ueta

Hiroyuki Hayashita

Hiroshi Ohtake

Yoshiki Iino

Takeshi Sowa

Sougo Ohta

Yoshihito Koya

Takayuki Ota

Natsue Sakaguchi

Shinji Osawa

Masahide Abe

Katsunori Mizuno

Tsuyoshi Arakawa

Yoshiyuki Tomizawa

An image sensor includes a plurality of pixels and includes a photodiode configured to operate in both modes of a linear mode for linearly responding to a light incident amount and a photo-voltaic mode for logarithmically responding to the light incident amount, a source follower circuit configured to output a signal voltage according to a signal generated according to an output of the photodiode, an AD converter configured to convert the signal voltage output from the source follower circuit into digital signal data, a frame memory configured to store signal data of one frame, and a conversion function configured to generate, from signal data of a current frame and signal data of a previous frame, an optical signal relating to the light incident amount.

Image sensor and optical signal generation method

An image sensor including a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix. Each of the pixels includes a photodiode configured to operate both in a linear mode in which the photodiode shows a linear response to a light incident amount and in a photovoltaic mode in which the photodiode shows a logarithmic response to the light incident amount, a pixel source follower transistor configured to output a signal voltage corresponding to a signal generated based on an output of the photodiode, a pixel switch transistor configured to turn on/off an output of the pixel source follower transistor, a holding capacitor connected to an output end of the pixel switch transistor and configured to hold a voltage corresponding to the output of the photodiode, and an output source follower circuit configured to output the voltage held by the holding capacitor as a signal voltage to an AD converter.

Image sensor operating in a reset free photovoltaic mode

A pixel of an image sensor includes a photodiode, a reset transistor, a peak hold transistor, and a first capacitor and a second capacitor. The pixels include, a first mode in which the noise and image output voltages of the photodiode are held in the first and second capacitors, respectively, and a second mode in which the output voltage of the photodiode in a state where the reset transistor is turned on to reset the photodiode is held in the first capacitor or the second capacitor. In the first mode, an image signal corresponding to the light incident amount of the photodiode and a noise signal when the light incident amount is relatively low are obtained. In the second mode, a noise signal when the light incident amount of the photodiode is relatively high is obtained.

Photo voltaic image sensor to supress black solar

An image sensor includes: a photodiode configured to be reset for each one frame period, to accumulate charges corresponding to incident light for one frame period, and to output an output voltage corresponding to the accumulated charges; and a holding capacitor configured to accumulate charges corresponding to an output signal of the photodiode. The output signal of the photodiode for one frame is integrated, the integrated output signal is accumulated in the holding capacitor, and a first signal is output. After the holding capacitor is refreshed, a voltage corresponding to the output voltage of the photodiode is held in the holding capacitor, and a second signal is output.

Image sensor to suppress flicker

In a case where a photodiode is in a saturated state, the photodiode can be transited from the saturated state to an unsaturated state during a period when a knee pulse is supplied from a knee pulse supplying unit. The knee pulse supplying unit preferably supplies the knee pulse a plurality of times during one frame period.

Image sensor having pixels in linear mode and photovoltaic mode

An image sensor includes a sensor substrate and a circuit substrate. The sensor substrate includes a plurality of sensor substrate-side pixels. Each of the sensor substrate-side pixels includes a photodiode configured to operate in a photovoltaic mode, a reset transistor configured to reset the photodiode, and a pixel source follower transistor connected to an output of the photodiode. The circuit substrate includes circuit substrate-side pixels corresponding to the respective sensor substrate-side pixels of the sensor substrate. Each of the circuit substrate-side pixels includes a peak hold circuit configured to hold a peak of an output of the pixel source follower transistor by receiving the output of the pixel source follower transistor, and a readout source follower transistor configured to read out a voltage held in a holding capacitor. The sensor substrate-side pixels and the respective corresponding circuit substrate-side pixels are connected to each other.

Image sensor operating in a photovoltaic mode

A pixel circuit includes: a phototransistor configured to receive, by one region of a source and a drain, inflow of photo-carriers generated by light entering a substrate, and configured to output a voltage signal from the one region; and a blocking layer provided on another region of the drain and the source and on a side of a channel far from a surface, and configured to prevent the photo-carriers from directly flowing into the other region. The phototransistor causes a sub-threshold current to flow between the source and the drain in a pinch-off state. Each of the source and the drain of the phototransistor is periodically reset to a reset voltage. The reset voltage is set to a voltage between a voltage at which a dark current of the phototransistor becomes zero and a voltage at which a bias voltage of the phototransistor becomes zero.

Photo-voltaic phototransistor in forward bias

A pixel circuit includes: a photodiode configured to operate in a photovoltaic mode and to accumulate charges corresponding to an incident light amount; a reset transistor configured to reset the accumulated charges of the photodiode; and a peak hold circuit configured to hold an output corresponding to the accumulated charges of the photodiode, the peak hold circuit including a peak hold transistor connected to an output end of the photodiode, a switching transistor configured to turn on/off an output of the peak hold transistor, and a holding capacitor configured to hold an output of the switching transistor. The peak hold transistor operates in a state where no carrier charge or only one carrier charge is present on a channel.

Image sensor including peak hold circuit

An imaging device including a photoelectric converter that generates signal charge; a charge storage region that stores the signal charge; a first transistor that has a gate coupled to the charge storage region and reads out the signal charge; a second transistor that has a source and a drain, an output of the first transistor being fed back to one of the source and the drain and being supplied to the charge storage region from the other of the source and the drain; and voltage supply circuitry that supplies voltages varying with time. In a reset operation for discharging the signal charge stored in the charge storage region, the voltage supply circuitry supplies the voltages to a gate of the second transistor.

Solid-state imaging apparatus and method of driving the same

An imaging device including a semiconductor substrate; a photoelectric converter that converts incident light into a signal charge, the photoelectric converter being stacked on the semiconductor substrate; a node to which the signal charge is input; a transistor having a source and a drain, one of the source and the drain being connected to the node; and a capacitive element connected between the transistor and a voltage source or a ground. The transistor is configured to switch between a first mode and a second mode, a sensitivity in the first mode being different from a sensitivity in the second mode, and in a cross-sectional view, the capacitive element is located between the semiconductor substrate and the photoelectric converter.

Imaging device including a photoelectric converter and a capacitive element having a dielectric film sandwiched between electrodes and a mode switching transistor

An imaging device including: a photoelectric converter that generates signal charge; a charge storage region that stores the signal charge; a first transistor that has a gate coupled to the charge storage region and reads out the signal charge; a second transistor that, has a source and a drain, an output of the first transistor being fed back to one of the source and the drain and being supplied to the charge storage region from the other of the source and the drain; and voltage supply circuitry that supplies voltages varying with time. In a reset operation for discharging the signal charge stored in the charge storage region, the voltage supply circuitry supplies the voltages to a gate of the second transistor so that the second transistor gradually changes from an OFF state to an ON state.

An imaging device including: a photoelectric converter that converts incident light into a signal charge; a node to which the signal charge is input; a transistor having a source and a drain, one of the source and the drain being connected to the node; and a capacitive element. The capacitive element including a first electrode, a second electrode and a dielectric film sandwiched between the first electrode and the second electrode, the first electrode being connected to the other of the source and the drain of the transistor, the second electrode being connected to a voltage source or a ground. The transistor is configured to switch a first mode and a second mode, a sensitivity in the first mode being different from a sensitivity in the second mode.

An imaging device having a pixel including: a photoelectric converter that generates an electric signal through photoelectric conversion of incident light; a first transistor that has a gate coupled to the photoelectric converter and that amplifies the electric signal; and a second transistor that has a gate coupled to the photoelectric converter, one of a source and a drain of the second transistor being coupled to the photoelectric converter. The imaging device further includes a voltage supply circuit configured to supply two or more different voltages to the other of the source and the drain of the second transistor.

Imaging device including unit pixel cell

An imaging device including a semiconductor substrate; a photoelectric converter stacked on the semiconductor substrate, the photoelectric converter being configured to generate a signal through photoelectric conversion of incident light; a multilayer wiring structure located between the semiconductor substrate and the photoelectric converter; and circuitry located in the multilayer wiring structure and the semiconductor substrate, the circuitry being configured to detect the signal. The circuitry includes a first capacitance element and a second capacitance element; and a first transistor including a first source and a first drain in the semiconductor substrate and a first gate. The first capacitance element includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and a dielectric film between the first electrode and the second electrode, the multilayer wiring structure includes an insulating layer adjacent to the first capacitance element, and a permittivity of the dielectric film is greater than a permittivity of the insulating layer.

Imaging device including photoelectric converter and circuitry including a first capacitance element, a second capacitance element and a transistor

An imaging device includes a photoelectric converter generating signal charge; a charge storage region storing the signal charge; a first transistor having a gate coupled to the charge storage region; a second transistor having a source and a drain; and voltage supply circuitry supplying voltages varying with time. An output of the first transistor is fed back to the second transistor and is supplied to the charge storage region. A reset operation for discharging the signal charge in the charge storage region includes a first reset operation and a second reset operation. In the first reset operation, the second transistor changes from an OFF state to an ON state and then changes to an OFF state. In the second reset operation, the voltage supply circuitry supplies the voltages to a gate of the second transistor so that the second transistor gradually changes from an OFF state to an ON state.

Growing community of inventors

Kyoto, Japan

Yoshiyuki Matsunaga