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:
Nov. 02, 2010
Filed:
Oct. 15, 2007
Sohei Manabe, San Jose, CA (US);
Ashish Shah, Milpitas, CA (US);
Sasidhar Saladi, Santa Clara, CA (US);
William Qian, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Hidetoshi Nozaki, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Nagaraja Satyadev, San Jose, CA (US);
Hsin-chih (Dyson) Tai, Cupertino, CA (US);
Howard M. Rhodes, San Martin, CA (US);
Sohei Manabe, San Jose, CA (US);
Ashish Shah, Milpitas, CA (US);
Sasidhar Saladi, Santa Clara, CA (US);
William Qian, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Hidetoshi Nozaki, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Nagaraja Satyadev, San Jose, CA (US);
Hsin-Chih (Dyson) Tai, Cupertino, CA (US);
Howard M. Rhodes, San Martin, CA (US);
OmniVision Technologies, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
An image sensor has at least two photodiodes in each unit pixel. A high dynamic range is achieved by selecting different exposure times for the photodiodes. Additionally, blooming is reduced. The readout timing cycle is chosen so that the short exposure time photodiodes act as drains for excess charge overflowing from the long exposure time photodiodes. To improve draining of excess charge, the arrangement of photodiodes may be further selected so that long exposure time photodiodes are neighbored along vertical and horizontal directions by short exposure time photodiodes. A micro-lens array may also be provided in which light is preferentially coupled to the long exposure time photodiodes to improve sensitivity.