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US 12,311,961 B2Granted
Electronic device including monitoring circuit of ramp signal and operating method thereof
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorsMinwoo Lee, Seongyeop Park
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An electronic device includes a ramp generator configured to generate a ramp signal used to detect data, the ramp signal increasing or decreasing with a certain slope; a main circuit configured to perform at least one predefined function by detecting the data based on the ramp signal; a monitoring circuit configured to output a verify signal indicating whether the ramp signal is faulty; and a controller configured to control execution of the at least one predefined function based on the verify signal.
Claims17
An electronic device, comprising:
- a ramp generator configured to generate a ramp signal used to detect data, the ramp signal increasing or decreasing with a certain slope;
- a main circuit configured to perform at least one predefined function by detecting the data based on the ramp signal;
- a monitoring circuit configured to output a verify signal indicating whether the ramp signal is faulty;
- and
- a controller configured to control execution of the at least one predefined function based on the verify signal,
- wherein the monitoring circuit comprises:
- a reference generator configured to generate at least one reference value;
- a differentiator configured to calculate a slope of the ramp signal based on the ramp signal and a zeroth reference value provided from the reference generator;
- a first comparator configured to generate a first comparison result by comparing the slope with a first reference value;
- a second comparator configured to generate a second comparison result by comparing the slope with a second reference value;
- and
- a discriminator configured to discriminate whether the ramp signal is faulty based on the first comparison result and the second comparison result.
9 more elements
An image sensor, comprising:
- a pixel array comprising a plurality of pixels;
- a ramp generator configured to generate a ramp signal;
- a readout circuit configured to compare the ramp signal with a pixel signal output from the pixel array and convert the pixel signal into a digital pixel value;
- a controller configured to control the ramp generator and the readout circuit;
- and
- a monitoring circuit configured to measure a slope of the ramp signal and output a signal indicating whether the ramp generator is faulty to the controller,
- wherein the monitoring circuit comprises:
- a reference generator configured to generate at least one reference value;
- a differentiator configured to calculate the slope of the ramp signal;
- at least one comparator configured to generate a comparison result by comparing the slope of the ramp signal with the at least one reference value;
- and
- a discriminator configured to discriminate whether the ramp signal is faulty based on the comparison result of the at least one comparator.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.