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US 8,045,031 B2Granted
Image sensor and readout method
AssigneeArnold & Richter Cine Technik GmbH & Co. Betriebs KG
InventorMichael Cieslinski
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention relates to an image sensor, in particular a CMOS image sensor, for electronic cameras, having a plurality of light sensitive pixels arranged in rows and columns and a number of output amplifiers. The image sensor is made such that the order in which the pixels are switched to the output amplifiers is varied with respect to the order in which the pixels are arranged along a row of the image sensor.
Claims13
An image sensor for electronic cameras, comprising
- a plurality of light sensitive pixels (P) arranged in rows ( . . . , Zm-1, Zm) and columns (S1-1, . . . , S1-4, S2-1, . . . , S2-4, . . . );
- a number of output amplifiers (V1, V2, V3, V4);
- a switching device (11, 13), for selectively switching the pixels (P) of one of the rows ( . . . , Zm-1, Zm) to the number of output amplifiers (V1, V2, . . . , V4);
- and
- a control device (17) for controlling the switching device (11, 13),
- characterized in that
- the image sensor is made such that an order in which the plurality of light sensitive pixels (P) are switched to the output amplifiers (V1, V2, V3, V4) is varied with respect to the order in which the plurality of light sensitive pixels (P) are arranged along a row ( . . . , Zm-1, Zm) of the image sensor;
- wherein the columns (S1-1, . . . , S1-4, S2-1, . . . , S2-4, . . . ) are divided into a plurality of column groups (S1, S2, . . . );
- and in that the number of the output amplifiers (V1, V2, V3, V4) corresponds to the number of the columns (S1-1, . . . , S1-4, S2-1, . . . , S2-4, . . . ) of a column group (S1, S2, . . . ), with the number of columns (S1-1, . . . , S1-4, S2-1, . . . , S2-4, . . . ) of each column group (S1, S2, . . . ) being associated with the number of output amplifiers (V1, V2, V3, V4) in accordance with an association order, and with mutually different association orders being provided for at least some of the plurality of column groups (S1, S2, . . . ).
6 more elements
An image sensor for electronic cameras, comprising
- a plurality of light sensitive pixels (P) arranged in rows ( . . . , Zm-1, Zm) and columns (S1-1, . . . , S1-4, S2-1, . . . , S2-4, . . . );
- a number of output amplifiers (V1, V2, V3, V4);
- a switching device (11, 13), for selectively switching the pixels (P) of one of the rows ( . . . , Zm-1, Zm) to the number of output amplifiers (V1, V2, . . . , V4);
- and
- a control device (17) for controlling the switching device (11, 13),
- characterized in that
- the image sensor is made such that an order in which the plurality of light sensitive pixels (P) are switched to the output amplifiers (V1, V2, V3, V4) is varied with respect to the order in which the plurality of light sensitive pixels (P) are arranged along a row ( . . . , Zm-1, Zm) of the image sensor;
- wherein the columns (S1-1, . . . , S1-4, S2-1, . . . , S2-4, . . . ) are divided into a plurality of column groups (S1, S2, . . . ) and the number of the output amplifiers (V1, V2, V3, V4) corresponds to the number of columns (S1-1, . . . , S1-4, S2-1, . . . , S2-4, . . . ) of a column group (S1, S2, . . . ), with the column groups (S1, S2, . . . ) being arranged in accordance with an arrangement order relative to one another and the control device (17) being made to control the switching device (11, 13) such that the column groups (S1, S2, . . . ) are switched for each row in accordance with a respective readout order sequentially to the output amplifiers (V1, V2, V3, V4), with the respective readout order of the column groups (S1, S2, . . . ) being different from the arrangement order of the column groups (S1, S2, . . . ).
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.