Demodulation sensor with separate pixel and storage arrays
US9442196B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jan 6, 2011 |
| Grant date | Sep 13, 2016 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | May 11, 2032 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01S17/894
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A demodulation image sensor, such as used in time of flight (TOF) cameras, extracts all storage- and post-processing-related steps from the pixels to another array of storage and processing elements (proxels) on the chip. The pixel array has the task of photo-detection, first processing and intermediate storage, while the array of storage and processing elements provides further processing and enhanced storage capabilities for each pixel individually. The architecture can be used to address problems due to the down-scaling of the pixel size. Typically, either the photo-sensitivity or the signal storage capacitance suffers significantly. Both a lower sensitivity and smaller storage capacitances have negative influence on the image quality. The disclosed architecture allows for keeping the storage capacitance unaffected by the pixel down-scaling. In addition to that, it provides a high degree of flexibility in integrating more intelligence into the image sensor design already on the level of the pixel array. In particular, if applied to demodulation pixels, the flexibility of the architecture allows for integrating on sensor-level concepts for multi-tap sampling, mismatch compensatio…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.