Image sensors
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorsJonghyun GO, Jae-Kyu LEE
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image sensor for securing an area of a photodiode includes a pixel area and a transistor area adjacent to the pixel area. The pixel area may include a photodiode and a floating diffusion area. The transistor area may include transistors extending along an edge of the pixel area. The transistors in the transistor area may include a reset transistor, one or more source follower transistors, and one or more selection transistors, and the reset transistor and one source follower transistor adjacent to the reset transistor may share a common drain area. The source follower transistors and the selection transistors may each share a common source area or a common drain area between two adjacent transistors thereof.
Claims20
An image sensor, comprising:
- a plurality of unit pixels, wherein each of the plurality of unit pixels includes
- a photodiode;
- a transfer transistor connected between the photodiode and a floating diffusion area;
- a reset transistor connected between a source voltage node and the floating diffusion area;
- a selection transistor;
- and
- at least two source follower transistors between the source voltage node and the selection transistor, each of the at least two source follower transistors having a gate connected to the floating diffusion area,
- wherein the selection transistor is between the at least two source follower transistors and an output voltage node.
An image sensor, comprising:
- a plurality of unit pixels, each of the plurality of unit pixels including
- a photodiode;
- a transfer transistor connected to the photodiode;
- a reset transistor connected to the transfer transistor;
- at least two source follower transistors connected to the reset transistor;
- and
- at least one selection transistor connected to the at least two source follower transistors,
- wherein the at least two source follower transistors are connected between the reset transistor and the at least one selection transistor in parallel.
An image sensor, comprising:
- a plurality of unit pixels, each of the plurality of unit pixels including
- a photodiode;
- a transfer transistor connected to the photodiode;
- a reset transistor, a source of the reset transistor connected to a source of the transfer transistor;
- three source follower transistors, a drain of each source follower transistor of the three source follower transistors connected to a drain of the reset transistor;
- and
- a selection transistor, a source of the selection transistor connected to a source of each source follower transistor of the three source follower transistors,
- wherein the three source follower transistors are connected between the drain of the reset transistor and the source of the selection transistor in parallel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.