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:
Dec. 09, 2003
Filed:
Jul. 08, 2002
Xiaochuan Guo, Gainesville, FL (US);
Zhiliang Julian Chen, Plano, TX (US);
John G. Harris, Gainesville, FL (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
This CMOS imager represents illuminance in the time domain. Once per frame, each pixel outputs a pulse after a time proportional to the illuminance on that pixel. Therefore, the illuminance on that pixel is related to the time difference between its pulse event and global reset of the imager. A counter reports the times of these pulse events in a digital format. Thus no analog to digital converter is necessary. This imager enables easy computation of pixel intensity histograms. Frame data is stored in pixel intensity order using row and column arbiters to produce a pixel address. Because each pixel has its own exposure time, the imager has a wide dynamic range of 120 dB. This imager has low power dissipation and avoids the noise and mismatch problems of prior complicated analog readout circuits.