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:
Mar. 15, 2016
Filed:
Jan. 05, 2015
Semiconductor Components Industries, Llc, Phoenix, AZ (US);
Jaroslav Hynecek, Allen, TX (US);
Gennadiy Agranov, San Jose, CA (US);
Xiangli Li, San Jose, CA (US);
Hirofumi Komori, San Jose, CA (US);
Xia Zhao, Campbell, CA (US);
Chung Chun Wan, Fremont, CA (US);
Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC, Phoenix, AZ (US);
Abstract
The invention describes image sensor array pixels with global and rolling shutter capabilities that utilize multiple BCMD transistors for storing and sensing charge for a single photodiode. This configuration improves the Dynamic Range (DR) of the sensor, by allowing sensing different image signals from a single pixel without saturation, a low level signal with long integration time followed by a high level signal with short integration time. Signal processing circuits can process these signals into a single Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) output. Further disclosed are pixels that use multiple-gate BCMD transistors for charge storage and sensing having multiple concentric gates, which allows changing the conversion gain of the BCMD transistors. Variable conversion gain is a useful feature when building WDR sensors since low conversion gain and high well capacity allows detection of high level signals and, at the same time, low level signals with high conversion gain and low noise.