Back to results
US 5,672,902 AGranted
Image sensor
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsKatsunori Hatanaka, Toshihiro Saika, Takayuki Ishii, Katsuhiko Yamada
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image sensor includes a substrate on which are formed a light-receiving element and a thin-film transistor for transferring an output from the light-receiving element, and a silicon integrated circuit chip for driving the thin-film transistor and processing signals. All externally connected input/output signal lines are extracted through or electrically connected to the silicon integrated circuit chip.
Claims30
An image sensor comprising:
- a carrier substrate comprising:
- a sensor substrate;
- a sensor section comprising a light-receiving element formed on said sensor substrate;
- a thin-film transistor section, formed on said sensor substrate, for transferring an output signal from said light-receiving element;
- and
- a sensor wiring section, comprising a terminal section, for electrically connecting said sensor section and said thin-film transistor section to said terminal section, said terminal section for connection outside said image sensor;
- a silicon integrated circuit chip, different from said sensor substrate, for controlling said thin-film transistor section, said silicon integrated circuit having a clamping circuit coupled to said thin-film transistor section;
- and
- a wiring section comprising a plurality of input/output signal lines, coupled to said sensor substrate, for inputting/outputting signals between said sensor substrate and outside said image sensor, wherein all of said input/output signal lines are also electrically connected to said clamping circuit provided on said silicon integrated circuit chip for preventing electrostatic breakdown in said light-receiving element and/or said thin-film transistor section caused by an excessive voltage being supplied that is higher than a predetermined level.
6 more elements
An image sensor comprising:
- a sensor substrate comprising:
- a plurality of light-receiving elements arranged in an array for converting image information into an electrical signal;
- and
- a thin-film transistor coupled to said light-receiving elements;
- an integrated circuit chip, different from said sensor substrate, for controlling said thin-film transistor, said integrated circuit having a clamping circuit coupled to said thin-film transistor for outputting an electrical signal carrying image information through said thin-film transistor;
- and
- input/output signal lines for outputting the electrical signal carrying the image information to an external unit, and for supplying to said integrated circuit chip a signal for driving said thin-film transistor, wherein all of said input/output signal lines are also connected to said clamping circuit provided in said integrated circuit chip.
4 more elements
An image sensor comprising:
- a sensor substrate having a plurality of light-receiving elements arranged in an array, a matrix wiring section for receiving output signals from said light-receiving elements, and at least one of:
- (1) a thin-film transistor for transmitting said output signals through said matrix wiring section to a unit outside of said sensor substrate and (2) a thin-film transistor for controlling said light-receiving elements through said matrix wiring section;
- an integrated circuit element, different from said sensor substrate, for driving said thin-film transistor of said sensor substrate, said integrated circuit element having a clamping circuit;
- and
- input/output lines, for supplying bias voltage to said light-receiving elements of said sensor substrate and being also electrically connected to said integrated circuit element, wherein said input/output lines are also connected to said sensor substrate through said integrated circuit element, said clamping circuit being coupled to said input/output lines.
2 more elements
An image sensor comprising:
- a carrier substrate comprising:
- a sensor substrate;
- a sensor section comprising a light-receiving element formed on the sensor substrate;
- a thin-film transistor section, formed on the sensor substrate, for transferring an output signal from the light-receiving element;
- and
- a sensor wiring section, comprising a terminal section, for electrically connecting the sensor section and the thin-film transistor section to the terminal section, the terminal section for connection outside the image sensor;
- a silicon integrated circuit chip, different from the sensor substrate, for controlling the thin-film transistor section, said silicon integrated circuit chip having a clamping circuit coupled to the thin-film transistor section;
- and
- a wiring section comprising a plurality of input/output signal lines, coupled to the sensor substrate, for inputting/outputting signals between the sensor substrate and outside the image sensor, wherein all of the input/output signal lines are electrically connected to the integrated circuit chip, and at least a subset of the input/output signal lines are electrically connected to the clamping circuit which is different from a predetermined connecting portion, so as to prevent electrostatic breakdown in the light-receiving element and/or the thin-film transistor section caused by an excessive voltage being supplied that is higher than a predetermined level.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.