A forward-facing vision system for a vehicle includes a forward-facing camera disposed in a windshield electronics module attached at a windshield of the vehicle and viewing through the windshield. A control includes a processor that, responsive to processing of captured image data, detects taillights of leading vehicles during nighttime conditions and, responsive to processing of captured image data, detects lane markers on a road being traveled by the vehicle. The control, responsive to lane marker detection and a determination that the vehicle is drifting out of a traffic lane, may control a steering system of the vehicle to mitigate such drifting, with the steering system manually controllable by a driver of the vehicle irrespective of control by the control. The processor, based at least in part on detection of lane markers via processing of captured image data, determines curvature of the road being traveled by the vehicle.

Vision system for vehicle

The pinned photodiode is the primary photodetector structure used in most CCD and CMOS image sensors. This paper reviews the development, physics, and technology of the pinned photodiode.

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A Review of the Pinned Photodiode for CCD and CMOS Image Sensors

A driver assistance system for a vehicle includes an imaging device having a field of view forward of a vehicle and in a direction of travel of the equipped vehicle, an image processor operable to process image data captured by the imaging device, and a global positioning system operable to determine a geographical location of the vehicle. The equipped vehicle includes an adaptive speed control system for controlling the speed of the equipped vehicle. The adaptive speed control system may reduce the speed of the equipped vehicle responsive at least in part to a detection of a curve in the road ahead of the equipped vehicle via processing by the image processor of image data captured by the imaging device.

Driver assistance system for vehicle

An undesirable image lag with a long time constant was found in the interline CCD image sensor having N+P-junction photodiode (PD). This paper clarifies the image lag mechanism and proposes a new photodiode structure having no image lag. The image lag measurement method and the experimental results are also given. The experimental results quantitatively agreed with the analytical model, in which signal electrons are assumed to be transferred from the PD to the vertical CCD as a small subthreshold current. To eliminate the image lag, a P+NP-structure PD with low donor concentration was proposed, where all the signal electrons can be quickly transferred before the subthreshold condition begins. As a result, the decay lag values of the 1st and the 2nd fields were reduced to half and the decay lags after the 3rd field were not observed.

No image lag photodiode structure in the interline CCD image sensor

A vision system for a vehicle includes a first imaging sensor having a first forward field of view and a second imaging sensor spaced from the first imaging sensor and having a second forward field of view, which at least partially overlaps with the first forward field of view. A control processes image data captured by at least one of the first and second imaging sensors to determine an object present in the first and/or second forward fields of view. The control is operable to modulate a headlamp of the vehicle responsive to the processing of image data captured by the at least one of the first and second imaging sensors. The control may process image data captured by both of the imaging sensors to determine a distance between the equipped vehicle and an object present in the overlap of the first and second forward fields of view.

Vehicle vision system

THE APPLICATION OF AN overflow drain and barrier positioned beside the photosensitive area? has made it possible to suppress blooming of CCD image sensors. However, this method was found to sacrifice photosensitivity and dynamic range. This paper will describe an interline CCD sensor where the vertical overflow drain is positioned under, rather than beside the photodiode. Thus the cell area can now be used effectively for photoelectron generation and storage, and increased photosensitivity and dynamic range can be maintained. Furthermore, this technique eliminates the blooming phenomenon.

Interline CCD image sensor with an anti blooming structure

A novel noise suppression method for a high-definition CCD (charge coupled device) camera, the RDS (reflection-delayed noise suppression) method, is described. By using the reflection in a delay line, it has become possible to obtain both significant noise suppression and a wide frequency bandwidth. The method is superior to conventional methods in that its frequency bandwidth is very wide and its high-speed operations are very stable. The performance of a HDTV (high-definition TV) three-CCD color camera using this method is reported. >

A new noise suppression method for high-definition CCD cameras

An HDTV (high-definition television) color camera has been developed by using a novel color-coding method, the field sequential color-coding method, to suppress spurious color signals. This camera has realized a high resolution of more than 850 TV lines without color moire and spurious color signals. Since the size and weight are 1/5 that of an HDTV 3-CCD color camera, it is suitable for both industrial and home use. >

HDTV single-chip CCD color camera

HIGH-RESOLUTION TV CAMERAS are essential to home VTRs, industrial TV systems, broadcasting systems, and future high-definition TV systems. To provide cameras, solid-state image sensors are expected to be the most suitable devices, affording performance superior to that available from most of the current vidicon type pickup tubes. However, as far as the resolution is concerned, existing solid-state image sensors’ >2 are still inferior to vidicon pickup tubes. In the design of practical high-resolution solid-state image sensors, it is important to reduce the cell size to one half of that of the conventional device’, and also maintain a wide dynamic range and high sensitivity; i.e., high signal-to-noise ratio. Therefore, signal-handling capability per unit area for both photodiode (PD) and vertical CCD (VCCD) shift registers must be ideally doubled, and noise dominated by the output amplifier must be lowered. This paper will describe a high resolution interline CCD (HRIL-CCD) image sensor which includes 768 pixels in the horizontal direction and 490 pixels in the vertical direction. The overall die size of this sensor is the same as the conventional CCD models’. The HRIL-CCD image sensor was fabricated on a 20-30&m N-type silicon substrate using three-level polysilicon technology and 1 . 5 ~ rule fine pattern process. Image area measures 8.8(H) x 6.6(V) mm, applicable to a 2/3” vidicon lens view field. Unit cell size is 11.5(H) x 13.5(V) p. The aperture ratio is about 40%. A cross sectional view of a unit cell of the image sensor employing a vertical overflow drain’ is shown in Figure 1. The buried channel V-CCD shift register is made of a thick, highly doped P-well. The N-region of the PD is formed in a shallow, lightly doped P-layer which is a lateral diffused region of the above thick, highly doped P-well. Therefore, excess charge, which can be controlled by a substrate voltage, overflows through the laterally diffused P-layer into an N-type silicon substrate to eliminate blooming, while on the other hand, the entire P-well region under the V-CCD shift register is kept undepleted at this substrate voltage. Another advantage of this structure is that a unit cell with smaller size can also be realized by adjusting both dosage and depth of the P-well. The 3 . 3 ~ channel width of the V-CCD shift register was chosen to maximize the PD area. The depth of the buried channel for the V-CCD shigt register was designed to be as shallow as possible ( 0 . 5 ~ ) to obtain as much transferable signal charge as possible. Moreover, the thickness of Si02 for cell isolation has been thinned (about 0 . 3 ~ ) to reduce bird‘s beak intrusion, and also to suppress field-stress

A CCD image sensor with 768&#215;490 pixels

An interline-transfer CCD image sensor with 1280(H)× 970(V) pixels that has been developed for a TV camera will be presented. The device, designed for high definition TV, has a 48dB SNR.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel6/8301/25933/01156937.pdf

I. Akiyama

Papers

Interline CCD image sensor with an anti blooming structure

A new noise suppression method for high-definition CCD cameras

HDTV single-chip CCD color camera

A CCD image sensor with 768×490 pixels

A 1280 × 980 pixel CCD image sensor

I. Akiyama

Papers

Interline CCD image sensor with an anti blooming structure

A new noise suppression method for high-definition CCD cameras

HDTV single-chip CCD color camera

A CCD image sensor with 768&#215;490 pixels

A 1280 &#215; 980 pixel CCD image sensor

A CCD image sensor with 768×490 pixels

A 1280 × 980 pixel CCD image sensor