The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 29, 1988
Filed:
Aug. 15, 1986
Samuel C Wang, Manlius, NY (US);
David N Ludington, New Hartford, NY (US);
General Electric Company, Syracuse, NY (US);
Abstract
The invention relates to a charge injection device for optical sensing including a novel readout circuit facilitating an extended dynamic range. The invention has primary application to linear arrays for IR sensing. Sensitive, low-level operation is achieved in a primary readout means by allowing the charge to accumulate in the potential well of the individual sensor elements over the line period with each element being reset at the pixel readout rate and by using a charge injection pulse to clear stored charge from the individual sensor elements. A secondary readout means is also provided in which the charge is allowed to accumulate over a period not exceeding the pixel readout interval for unsaturated large signal operation and by sensing the change in depth of the potential well. The two readout means are combined in the eventual display to provide an improvement of typically three orders of magnitude in the dynamic range of the CID.