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US 12,604,117 B2Granted
Image element readout circuitry, image element, and image element readout method
AssigneeSony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation
InventorsJohannes Solhusvik, Yorito Sakano
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present disclosure generally pertains to image element readout circuitry configured to: sense an amount of electric carriers in a photosensitive element, wherein the photosensitive element is configured to generate the electric carriers in response to light being incident on the photosensitive element; and read the electric carriers from the photosensitive element when the amount of electric carriers has reached a predetermined value.
Claims20
An image element readout circuitry configured to:
- sense an amount of electric carriers in a photosensitive element, wherein the photosensitive element is configured to generate the electric carriers in response to light being incident on the photosensitive element;
- and
- read the electric carriers from the photosensitive element when the amount of electric carriers has reached a predetermined value, wherein
- the amount of electric carriers is capacitively sensed based on a capacitive coupling between the photosensitive element and an internal pixel element including at least one of a shallow trench isolation (STI) structure or a vertical transfer gate (VTG) structure, or
- the amount of electric carriers is sensed based on threshold voltage modulation sensing using a sensing circuit including the at least one of the STI structure or the VTG structure.
2 more elements
An image element comprising:
- a photosensitive element;
- and
- image element readout circuitry configured to:
- sense an amount of electric carriers in the photosensitive element, wherein the photosensitive element is configured to generate the electric carriers in response to light being incident on the photosensitive element;
- and
- read the electric carriers from the photosensitive element when the amount of electric carriers reached a predetermined value, wherein
- the amount of electric carriers is capacitively sensed based on a capacitive coupling between the photosensitive element and an internal pixel element including at least one of a shallow trench isolation (STI) structure or a vertical transfer gate (VTG) structure, or
- the amount of electric carriers is sensed based on threshold voltage modulation sensing using a sensing circuit including the at least one of the STI structure or the VTG structure.
5 more elements
An image element readout method comprising:
- sensing an amount of electric carriers in a photosensitive element, wherein the photosensitive element is configured to generate the electric carriers in response to light being incident on the photosensitive element;
- and
- reading the electric carriers from the photosensitive element when the amount of electric carriers has reached a predetermined value, wherein
- the amount of electric carriers is capacitively sensed based on a capacitive coupling between the photosensitive element and an internal pixel element including at least one of a shallow trench isolation (STI) structure or a vertical transfer gate (VTG) structure, or
- the amount of electric carriers is sensed based on threshold voltage modulation sensing using a sensing circuit including the at least one of the STI structure or the VTG structure.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.