Photodiode array having a controllable dumping circuitry
US6194703A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | May 20, 1999 |
| Grant date | Feb 27, 2001 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | May 20, 2019 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04N25/772
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Spectrometers often use a so called charge balance photodiode array. This type of photodiode array uses parallel AID conversion in each channel of said photodiode array, whereby a charge provided by a photocurrent is accumulated at an integrator circuit, and a dumping circuit removes this charge by well defined charge packets to keep the system in balance. In order to expand the field of application of these photodiode arrays, a storage circuit is inserted to buffer a possible charge overflow caused by a light beam of high intensity, as often occurs when flash light lamps are used in the spectrometers. The storage circuit includes a capacitor, and a current limiter which linearly conducts the photocurrent below a process limit defined by the saturation limit of the dumping circuitry and which, above this limit, converts a photocurrent pulse into a constant overflow current having a duration corresponding to the amplitude of the photocurrent pulse.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.