Active Pixel Sensor with wired floating diffusions and shared amplifier
AssigneeEastman Kodak Company
InventorRobert M. Guidash
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An image sensor having a plurality of pixels arranged in a series of row and columns comprising a semiconductor substrate having a plurality of pixels formed in rows and columns with at least two pixels that each have a voltage to charge conversion region that are spatially isolated from each other and electrically connected to the source of a single reset transistor. The pixels that share a reset transistor can also share an amplifier, and a select electrical function. The preferred embodiment envisions adjacent pixels, although, immediate adjacency is not a requirement.
Claims18
An image sensor having a plurality of pixels arranged in a series of row and columns comprising:
- a semiconductor material of a first conductivity type;
- at least two adjacent pixels formed within the semiconductor material, each of the pixels having a charge to voltage conversion region operatively coupled to a photodetector such that the charge to voltage conversion regions are spatially isolated from each other;
- and
- an interconnect layer that permanently shorts together the charge to voltage conversion regions.
An image sensor having a plurality of pixels arranged in a series of row and columns comprising:
- a semiconductor material of a first conductivity type;
- a predetermined subset of pixels comprising at least two pixels formed within the semiconductor material, each of the pixels having a charge to voltage conversion region operatively coupled to a photodetector such that the charge to voltage conversion regions are spatially isolated from each other;
- and
- an interconnect layer that permanently shorts together the charge to voltage conversion regions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.