Demodulation pixel incorporating majority carrier current, buried channel and high-low junction
US9698196B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Aug 16, 2010 |
| Grant date | Jul 4, 2017 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 2, 2034 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH10F39/80
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A demodulation pixel improves the charge transport speed and sensitivity by exploiting two effects of charge transport in silicon in order to achieve the before-mentioned optimization. The first one is a transport method based on the CCD gate principle. However, this is not limited to CCD technology, but can be realized also in CMOS technology. The charge transport in a surface or even a buried channel close to the surface is highly efficient in terms of speed, sensitivity and low trapping noise. In addition, by activating a majority carrier current flowing through the substrate, another drift field is generated below the depleted CCD channel. This drift field is located deeply in the substrate, acting as an efficient separator for deeply photo-generated electron-hole pairs. Thus, another large amount of minority carriers is transported to the diffusion nodes at high speed and detected.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.