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:
Jun. 28, 1994
Filed:
Feb. 17, 1993
Applicant:
Inventor:
Michael A Stekelenburg, Eindhoven, NL;
Assignee:
U.S. Philips Corporation, New York, NY (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H04N / ; G11C / ; G11C / ; H01L / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
377 58 ; 377 62 ; 257223 ; 257230 ; 348243 ; 348314 ;
Abstract
In CCD's, the major part of the dark current is caused by surface states. This dark current is disturbing, especially in image sensors, because the sensitivity of the camera is limited thereby. When according to the invention the integrating gates are varied periodically, the subjacent surface parts of the - buried - channel being brought periodically into inversion and into depletion, while maintaining the charge-containing capacity, a considerable reduction of the dark current can be obtained. In image sensors, voltage variation preferably occurs during the fly-back time.