Back to results
US 2003/0146991 A1Published application
CMOS image sensor with a low-power architecture
AssigneeMicron Technology, Inc.
InventorsSandor L. Barna, Guiseppe Rossi, Kwang-Bo Cho, Roger Panicacci
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system of reducing power consumption in and active pixels sensor. The sensor is broken into different blocks, and each of the blocks is individually optimized. The optimization may include minimizing the parasitic capacitance on the readout bus, turning off biases when not in use, and operating in a way that minimizes static power consumption of different elements such as A/D converters.
Claims32
An image sensor, comprising:
- an array of photosensing devices arranged into columns and rows;
- a column readout part which reads out said photosensing devices a row at a time;
- a gain stage, coupled to receive an output of said column readout part, and to increase a level of said output readout part;
- and an output driving stage, which drives an output signal,
- wherein each of said column readout part, said gain stage, and said output driving stage include at least one element which optimizes a power consumption of the stage independent of other stages.
2 more elements
An image sensor, comprising:
- an array of photosensitive pixels producing output signals indicative of values of said pixels;
- and
- first and second A/D converters, said first A/D converter associated with first color pixels, and said second A/D converter associated with second color pixels, said first and second A/D converters having staggered operating timing, such that one of the A/D converters starts operating when a different A/D converter is continuing to operate.
An image sensor, comprising:
- an array of photosensitive pixels;
- a timing and control logic, having a plurality of control parts, said plurality of control parts individually controllable and turned off when not in use.
A method, comprising:
- reading out pixel values from an array of photosensitive pixels;
- A/D converting pixel values from green pixels in a first A/D converter, at a first timing;
- and
- A/D converting pixel values from blue pixels in a second A/D converter at a second timing offset from said first timing.
1 more element
A method of acquiring an image, comprising:
- producing bias electrical values to be used as part of acquiring image signals;
- and
- turning off said bias electrical signals at times during the acquiring when the biases are not needed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.