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US 7,071,453 B1Granted
Solid-state imaging devices with improved dynamic range
AssigneeESS Technology, Inc.
InventorJoshua I. Pine
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The disclosure is a solid-state imaging device, including a photosensor for collecting charge created by incident photons, a comparator for comparing a digital voltage value corresponding to the collected charge, to a predetermined value, and generating a comparison output, and a normalizing circuit for normalizing the digital voltage value, in response to the comparison output.
Claims16
A solid-state imaging device comprising:
- a photosensor for collecting a charge created by incident photons, wherein the photosensor includes a plurality of photodetectors, and wherein the photosensor is exposed to incident photons during a base exposure and additional incident photons during one or more (N) additional exposures;
- a comparator for comparing a digital voltage value, corresponding to the charge collected by each of the plurality of the photodetectors, to a predetermined value, and generating a comparison output;
- and
- a normalizing circuit for normalizing the digital voltage value, in response to the comparison output indicative of the digital voltage value exceeding the predetermined value, and outputting a normalized voltage value, wherein the normalizing circuit shifts the digital voltage value to the right by N bits to generate the normalized voltage value.
1 more element
A solid-state imaging device comprising:
- means for collecting a charge created by incident photons, wherein the means for collecting includes a plurality of photodetectors, and wherein the means for collecting is exposed to incident photons during a base exposure and additional incident photons during one or more (N) additional exposures;
- means for comparing a digital voltage value, corresponding to the charge collected by each of the plurality of the photodetectors, to a predetermined value, and generating a comparison output;
- and
- means for normalizing the digital voltage value, in response to the comparison output indicative of the digital voltage value exceeding the predetermined value, and outputting a normalized voltage value, wherein the means for normalizing shifts the digital voltage value to the right by N bits to generate the normalized voltage value.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.