The disclosure concerns photosensitive matrices, and especially those using NIPIN or PINIP type phototransistors made of amorphous silicon. To prevent problems of remanence, due to the collecting of holes in the base after an illumination stage, it is proposed to follow the step for reading the illumination signal by a remanence erasure step in which the phototransistor is made conductive in forward or reverse bias, so as to inject, into the base, electrons which will eliminate the holes by recombination. Switching on by reverse bias proves to be more efficient than switiching on by forward bias. The invention is applicable notably to a matrix structure of rows and columns of photosensitive sites in which each site is formed by a NIPIN transistor made of amorphous silicon in series with a reading diode that may be put into reverse conduction.

Method of photoelectric detection with reduction of remanence of a phototransistor, notably of the NIPIN type

An imaging sensing system includes a solid state image device composed of one chip and a controller for controlling the solid state image device. The solid state image device further includes an image sensor of a charge accumulation type for receiving light from an object and for outputting an electric signal to the controller. Further, an exemplary embodiment of an image device includes a decoder for decoding a control signal and for outputting a decode signal. A timing signal output indicates the timing of a charge accumulation of an image sensor controller for controlling the image sensor in accordance with the decode signal. In an exemplary embodiment, the controller includes an A/D convertor for converting the electric signal into a digital signal.

Image sensing system

The term pixel, for picture element, was first published in two different SPIE Proceedings in 1965, in articles by Fred C. Billingsley of Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The alternative pel was published by William F. Schreiber of MIT in the Proceedings of the IEEE in 1967. Both pixel and pel were propagated within the image processing and video coding field for more than a decade before they appeared in textbooks in the late 1970s. Subsequently, pixel has become ubiquitous in the fields of computer graphics, displays, printers, scanners, cameras, and related technologies, with a variety of sometimes conflicting meanings.

A brief history of 'pixel'

A method for suppressing dark current in multi-phase CCD pixels of a CCD imaging device by transferring a charge packet at a first phase thereof at which surface depletion has occurred to a second phase thereof, while providing an inversion at the surface of the first phase. The transfer and inversion operations are performed before a dark current begins to be generated at the first phase. The charge packet at the second phase is then re-transferred back to the first phase and a surface inversion is produced at the second phase before a dark current begins to be generated at the second phase. Such transfer and inversion operations are repeated a number of times during the integration period of the imaging device so as to prevent dark current from being generated at any phase of the pixel.

Suppressing dark current in charge-coupled devices

An image signal processing apparatus includes: a solid-state image pickup device capable of taking a two-dimensional image, the device having a plurality of primary transfer paths and a secondary transfer path, wherein the plurality of primary first transfer each have a plurality of transfer stages each capable of storing electric charges and transfer the electric charges in a first direction, and the secondary transfer path has a plurality of transfer stages each capable of storing electric charges, receives electric charges in the plurality of primary transfer paths, and transfers the electric charges in a second direction; a reading unit for scanning the two-dimensional image on the solid-state image pickup device in a main scan direction corresponding to the second direction and in a sub-scan direction corresponding to the first direction and reading the electric charges in the secondary-transfer path as image signals; and an output unit for outputting the read image signals on a monitor by interchanging the main scan direction and the sub-scan direction.

Charge transfer of solid-state image pickup device

The present invention concerns an analysis process of a line transfer photosensitive device. The charge-signal and the charge noise transfers from the columns towards the memory have the same duration and are made by using a same training charge, stored in memory, that must be at least sufficient to allow to pass in high inversion at the beginning of the transfer from the columns towards the memory. The transfers of the charge-signal and the charge-noise from the memory towards the read-out register or the drain have the same duration and are made by using training charges at least sufficient to allow to pass in high inversion at the beginning of the transfer. These training charges are read with the charge-signal or collected with the charge-noise.

Analysis process of a line transfer photosensitive device and operating device of such a process

Line transfer light-sensitive device, of the kind comprising between each conductive column of a light-sensitive matrix and a corresponding input of a line memory, an injector constituted by an input diode connected to the column and a so-called control gate coupled to the column by a negative-feedback amplifier, characterised by the interposition between the said control gate (Gp1) and the input (G1) of the line memory, of at least one intermediate gate (Gp2) maintained at a fixed voltage. Such an intermediate gate allows regulation of the charge-flow regime whilst reducing the level of noise attributable to the action of the amplifier.

Line transfer light-sensitive device

An improved line-transfer photosensitive device and particularly a device which operates with a double drive charge comprises on at least one semiconductor substrate a photosensitive region made up of M lines of N photosensitive points. The photosensitive points of the different lines are connected in parallel by means of conductive columns to a line memory which carries out at least the transfer of the signal charges integrated on any one line of the phtosensitive region to a read register consisting of a charge-coupled shift register of the volume transfer type. The line memory is formed on a semiconductor substrate region having an impurity implantation of opposite type with respect to the substrate in order to produce a volume charge transfer. The region in which the line memory is formed has a dopant concentration which is lower than or equal to that of the region in which the shift register is formed.

Line-transfer photosensitive device

CCD''s have become serious competitors to camera tubes even for HDTV. The challenge set by HDTV requirements implies to soive the sensitivity I resolution antinomy with presently available VLSI technologies. This paper presents the various designs used by CCD''s manufacturers and details the main performances of the two devices realized. These performances are related to the various technological choices and compared to physical limits. 1.© (1992) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

High-definition CCDs for enhanced definition television

La presente invention concerne un procede d'analyse d'un dispositif photosensible a transfert de ligne. The present invention relates to a method for analyzing a photosensitive device to transfer line. Les transferts des charges-signal (Q s ), et des charges parasites (Q B ) des colonnes vers la memoire ont la meme duree (T L ) et se font en utilisant une meme charge d'entrainement (Q 0 ), stockee en memoire (4), qui doit etre au moins suffisante pour permettre de passer en forte inversion au debut du transfert des colonnes vers la memoire. The transfer of the signal charges (Q s), and parasitic charges (Q B) of the columns towards the memory have the same duration (T L) and are using the same training load (Q 0) stored in memory (4), which must be at least sufficient to allow to switch to strong inversion at the beginning of transfer of the columns to the memory. Les transferts des charges-signal et des charges-parasites de la memoire (4) vers le registre de lecture (3) ou le drain d'evacuation ont la meme duree (t 1 ) et se font en utilisant des charges d'entrainement (Q 1 et Q 2 ) au moins suffisantes pour permettre de passer en forte inversion au debut du transfert. The transfer of the signal charges and the parasitic charges of the memory (4) to the read register (3) or the discharge drain have the same duration (t 1) and are made using training loads ( Q 1 and Q 2) at least sufficient to permit the switch to strong inversion at the beginning of transfer. Ces charges d'entrainement sont lues avec les charges-signal ou evacuees avec les charges-parasites. These drive charges are read with the signal charges or discharged with loads-parasite.

Louis Brissot

Papers

Analysis process of a line transfer photosensitive device and operating device of such a process

Line transfer light-sensitive device

Line-transfer photosensitive device

High-definition CCDs for enhanced definition television

Method for scanning a line-transfer photosensitive device, and apparatus for carrying out the method