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:
Feb. 15, 2000
Filed:
Dec. 31, 1997
Hsin-Fu Tseng, Los Altos, CA (US);
Peripheral Imaging Corporation, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A Contact Image Sensor (CIS) system utilizing a phototransistor sensing element that consists of a mechanism to pre-charge or inject a 'background charge' into the storage node and allow the charge to reset through the same output base-to-emitter junction. This pre-charge and reset process removes the residual image and replenishes the charge lost by the base-to-emitter sub-threshold leakage current. Furthermore, the reset of the injected charge through the same output base-to-emitter junction automatically sets the phototransistor to an initial dark level, which is at the start of a linear region of the response versus illumination curve, and thus substantially improves the photo-response linearity.