Sensing with defective cell detection
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorRonald K. Minemier
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An image sensor may have on-board circuits for detecting defective pixels. In one embodiment of the present invention, high and low values may be determined for pixel intensities. Those pixels that produce intensity values that fall above or below these high and low values respectively, may be determined to be defective during the pixel readout process. In addition, spatial defects may be determined for rows and/or columns. By determining point and/or spatial defects during the pixel readout process, for example using circuitry containing on the image sensor itself, significant economies may achieved in the pixel manufacturing process.
Claims27
A method of detecting defective sensing element arrays comprising:
- reading out a frame of sensing element data from an array;
- and
- determining a number of spatial defects based on a number of pairs of adjacent defective pixels that are closer than a given offset by analyzing said data during the frame read out.
An article comprising a medium that stores software instructions executed by a processor that cause a processor-based system to:
- programmably set high and low limits for pixel intensity values;
- and
- determine during the read out of pixel intensity values from an array, a number of spatial defects involving a number of pairs of adjacent defective pixels that are closer than a predefined offset by analyzing pixel data from said array in view of said high and low limits for pixel intensity values.
A sensing device comprising:
- a plurality of sensing elements capable of indicating data to be captured;
- and
- a circuit in said device to determine a number of spatial defects based on pairs of adjacent defective pixels that are closer than an offset by analyzing the data as it is read out from said elements.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.