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:
May. 02, 2006
Filed:
Apr. 26, 2000
Takao Kuroda, Osaka, JP;
Sei Suzuki, Osaka, JP;
Akito Kidera, Osaka, JP;
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
In making solid state imaging devices smaller and increasing their number of pixels, it is desirable to increase the charge amount that can be handled per unit area of the transfer portions. It is possible to achieve this by making the insulating film thinner, but this leads to electric fields in the semiconductor substrate that are too strong, and causes problems such as the generation of noise and the deterioration of the transfer efficiency. This invention relaxes potential steps in the transfer region by applying, when a signal chargeis being read out (t=t), a high voltage to the electrodefor reading out the signal charge, a low voltage to at least one of the electrodesfor preventing unnecessary mixing of signal charges, and an intermediate voltage between the high voltage and the low voltage to the electrodesand, which are adjacent to the electrodeto which the high voltage is applied.