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:
Oct. 01, 1996
Filed:
Sep. 30, 1994
Richard M Turner, Boulder, CO (US);
Kristina T Johnson, Longmont, CO (US);
David A Jared, Mountain View, CA (US);
Board of Regents of the University of Colorado, Boulder, CO (US);
Abstract
A semiconductor device comprising a dual photodetector for use in an array to locate points of peak intensities incident upon the array. Each pixel in the array is comprised of a dual photodetector element. An n-type well is located within a p-substrate with highly doped p-contact areas located along the periphery of the n-well at the surface. A metal or polysilicon gate electrode covers the surface between the p-contacts and an applied gate voltage creates an inverted p-channel to form a lateral effect phototransistor. A second photodetector is formed at the junction of the n-well and p-substrate. The second photodetector from each pixel produces a current which is connected to a processing circuit to determine which pixel is the brightest above a designated threshold. All pixels above the threshold are sequentially identified. For the 'bright' pixels, photogenerated currents produced by the lateral effect phototransistors are analyzed by another processing circuit to produce the points of peak intensity within the bright pixel areas.