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US 5,541,402 AGranted
Imaging active pixel device having a non-destructive read-out gate
AssigneeAT&T Corp.
InventorsBryan D. Ackland, Alexander G. Dickinson, El-Sayed I. Eid, David A. Inglis
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The imaging pixel according to the present invention includes a floating gate pixel node capable of nondestructive readout and active source follower output circuitry suitable for combination with other like imaging pixels to form an imaging array.
Claims17
An imaging pixel having non-destructive read out, comprising:
- a first charge collection device configured for collecting photo-charges at a level proportional to energy received from a portion of an object to be imaged;
- a second charge collection device, being operatively connected to said first charge signal collection device and configured for selectively receiving and collecting said photo-charges from said first charge collection device;
- and
- a gating device being operatively connected to said second charge collection device, for selectively reading the level of said photo-charges collected in said second charge collection device without destructing the collected photo-charges.
1 more element
An imaging pixel device for imaging a portion of an object, comprising:
- collection means for collecting energy reflected from said portion of said object;
- storage means, operatively coupled to said collection means for storing said collected energy;
- output means coupled to said storage means, for selectively reading a potential value corresponding to said collected energy and for buffering said storage means:
- and
- transferring means for selectively transferring said collected energy between said collection means and said storage means without destructing said collected energy for repeat read-outs.
2 more elements
A method for imaging from an imaging pixel device, comprising the steps of:
- detecting energy reflected from an object to be imaged by a photo-detecting device;
- generating photo-charges in an amount corresponding to said detected energy;
- transferring said photo-charges to and from said photo-detecting device and a read-out storage device up to a plurality of times without destructing the photo-charges;
- buffering said read-out storage device from an output gate;
- and
- outputting from said output gate a potential value corresponding to the amount of photo-charges stored in said read-out storage device.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.