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US 2004/0165088 A1Published application
Low light sensor signal to noise improvement
AssigneeMicron Technology, Inc.
InventorsSandor L. Barna, Eric R. Fossum
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A number of different elements are added together in a staggered way to avoid the total loss of resolution caused by the binning process. The circuit for doing this includes a variable gain. In a second circuit for carrying this out, to fixed pattern noise reduction circuits are used.
Claims23
An image sensor comprising:
- a plurality of image sensor pixels;
- and
- a noise reduction circuit, receiving a first and second image part at a first time, and outputting a combination of said first and second image parts at said first time, and receiving said second image part along with a third image at a second subsequent time and outputting a combination of second and third image parts at said subsequent time.
A method of binning pixels, comprising:
- first obtaining a plurality n of pixels at a first time;
- adding said n pixels together to provide a first n-binned signal;
- obtaining another plurality n of pixels at a second time, wherein said another plurality of pixels includes n−1 of the same pixels as obtained in said first obtaining;
- and
- binning said second pixels at said second time to produce a second n-binned signal different from the first n-binned pixel.
2 more elements
A binning sensor, comprising:
- a plurality of pixels arranged in an array;
- a configurable adder, selectively connected to add at least a plurality of pixel-values to one another;
- and
- an offset reduction circuit, removing certain amplifier offsets from said pixel values prior to said adding.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.