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US 6,787,752 B2Granted
Pseudorandom assignment between elements of the image processor and the A/D converter cells
AssigneeMicron Technology, Inc.
InventorRichard H. Tsai
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image sensor with a plurality of elements which received images and a plurality of A/D conversion elements. A connection between the A/D converter and the image elements is substantially randomly assigned to avoid fixed pattern noise.
Claims27
An image sensor, comprising:
- an image acquisition array, having an array of image acquisition elements;
- a plurality of A/D converter elements, each of said A/D converter elements capable of converting a signal from a single element of said image sensor array into a digital value;
- and
- a switch array, between said array of image acquisition elements and said A/D converter elements, said switch array substantially randomly varying an assignment between each of said image acquisition elements and each of said A/D converter elements.
1 more element
A method of obtaining an image, comprising:
- receiving image elements from pixels of an image sensor;
- and
- substantially randomly assigning each element from each pixel to a specified A/D converter for conversion.
A method, comprising:
- obtaining image elements in pixels of an image sensor;
- substantially randomly assigning each element to an A/D converter;
- and
- converting said image elements in a plurality of separate image A/D converters which have variations between the A/D converters but without adding fixed pattern noise via said converting.
1 more element
An image sensor, comprising:
- an image acquisition array, having an array of image acquisition elements;
- a plurality of A/D converter elements;
- and
- a random output element, which produces a random output, coupled to said image acquisition array and said plurality of A/D converter elements.
1 more element
A method, comprising:
- obtaining image elements in pixels of an image sensor;
- and
- converting said image elements in a plurality of separate image A/D converters which have variations between the A/D converters but without adding fixed pattern noise via said converting, wherein said converting comprises using a pseudorandom number generator to assign a relationship between said image elements and said A/D converters.
A method, comprising:
- obtaining image elements in pixels of an image sensor;
- substantially randomly assigning each element to an A/D converter;
- and
- converting said image elements in a plurality of separate image A/D converters which have variations between the A/D converters.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.