Electronic device including monitoring circuit of ramp signal and operating method thereof
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorsMinwoo Lee, Seongyeop Park
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An electronic device includes a ramp generator configured to generate a ramp signal used to detect data, the ramp signal increasing or decreasing with a certain slope; a main circuit configured to perform at least one predefined function by detecting the data based on the ramp signal; a monitoring circuit configured to output a verify signal indicating whether the ramp signal is faulty; and a controller configured to control execution of the at least one predefined function based on the verify signal.
Claims22
An electronic device, comprising:
- a ramp generator configured to generate a ramp signal used to detect data, the ramp signal increasing or decreasing with a certain slope;
- a main circuit configured to perform at least one predefined function by detecting the data based on the ramp signal;
- a monitoring circuit configured to output a verify signal indicating whether the ramp signal is faulty;
- and
- a controller configured to control execution of the at least one predefined function based on the verify signal.
An image sensor, comprising:
- a pixel array comprising a plurality of pixels;
- a ramp generator configured to generate a ramp signal;
- a readout circuit configured to compare the ramp signal with a pixel signal output from the pixel array and convert the pixel signal into a digital pixel value;
- a controller configured to control the ramp generator and the readout circuit;
- and
- a monitoring circuit configured to measure a slope of the ramp signal and output a signal indicating whether the ramp generator is faulty to the controller.
20-22. (canceled)
An operating method of an electronic device, the operating method comprising:
- receiving a ramp signal;
- calculating a slope of the ramp signal;
- generating a comparison result by comparing the slope of the ramp signal with at least one reference value;
- discriminating whether the ramp signal is faulty according to the comparison result;
- and
- stopping an operation mode in response to the ramp signal being faulty, the operation mode being based on the ramp signal.
24-31. (canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.