Patent · US Expired

Active pixel sensor cell and method of using

US6026964A · kind A · utility

31Cited by
2References
10Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 25, 1997
Grant dateFeb 22, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 25, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH10F77/14

Abstract

The present invention is a active pixel sensor cell and method of making and using the same. The active pixel sensor cell approximately doubles the available signal for a given quanta of light. The device of the present invention utilizes the holes produced by impinging photons in a active pixel sensor cell circuit. Two active pixel sensor cell circuits, an NFET circuit and PFET circuit are created for use with a photodiode. The NFET circuit captures electron current. The PFET circuit captures hole current. The sum of the currents is approximately double that of conventional active pixel sensor circuits using similarly sized photodiode regions.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.