Image sensor with scaler and image scaling method thereof
AssigneeMagnaChip Semiconductor, Ltd.
InventorHyun-Joo Ahn
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An image sensor is wieldy used in many fields, including medical field and security device. Specifically, the image sensor is most widely used in digital camera and mobile phone. The digital camera and the mobile phone requires capture image of higher resolution and higher quality. However, a preview size of the mobile phone or digital camera requires a small size because of a display limitation. Therefore, a function of reducing an image size or magnifying a specific portion of the picture is essential in the image sensor. Accordingly, there is provided an image sensor with a scaler. The image sensor with the scaler can arbitrarily adjust a size of an image without any additional scaling chip.
Claims17
An image sensor, comprising:
- a pixel array having a plurality of pixels formed to maximize light sensing characteristic, the pixel array being configured to detect information on an external image;
- a timing controller for controlling an overall operation of the image sensor;
- an analog signal processor for converting an analog signal from the pixel array into a corresponding digital signal under control of the timing controller;
- a line memory for storing the digital signal in line unit;
- an image signal processor for processing a plurality of images by using the digital signal stored in the line memory so as to improve performance of the image sensor;
- and
- a scaler for receiving a scaling factor of a desired image size from the timing controller and calculating a scaling ratio so as to adjust an image size, and generating a corresponding row/column address and data and scaling the image stored in the line memory, whereby the image with the desired size is outputted.
An image scaling method of an image sensor, comprising:
- calculating a scaling ratio corresponding to scaling factors (SCALEM, SCALEN) for outputting an image with a desired size, wherein the scaling ratio is SCALEM/SCALEN;
- determining whether to execute a pre-scaling according to the scaling ratio;
- when the pre-scaling is necessary to execute, executing the pre-scaling to adjust the size of the image;
- determining whether to execute a post-scaling;
- when the post-scaling is necessary to execute, executing the post-scaling to adjust the size of the image;
- and
- synchronizing image data scaled through the pre-scaling and the post-scaling with an output clock of the image sensor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.