IMAGE SENSOR, IMAGE PROCESSING SYSTEM INCLUDING THE SAME, AND METHOD OF OPERATING THE SAME

• US 20140375851A1
• Filed: 05/30/2014
• Published: 12/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: KIM, Tae-Chan, LEE, Han Soo
• Granted Patent: US 9,538,101 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/294
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/00 Systems using the reflection or reradiation of radio waves, e.g. radar systems; Analogous systems using reflection or reradiation of waves whose nature or wavelength is irrelevant or unspecified
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/894 3D imaging with simultaneous measurement of time-of-flight at a 2D array of receiver pixels, e.g. time-of-flight cameras or flash lidar
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/4914 of detector arrays, e.g. charge-transfer gates
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/497 Means for monitoring or calibrating
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/00 Circuitry of solid-state image sensors [SSIS]; Control thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/60 Noise processing, e.g. detecting, correcting, reducing or removing noise
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/745 Circuitry for generating timing or clock signals

Abstract

An image sensor includes a photo gate controller configured to generate a plurality of demodulated signals respectively corresponding to a plurality of rows of a pixel array and a photo gate driver configured to adjust a phase of the demodulated signals using a source clock signal to remove power, voltage and temperature (PVT) noise and to apply the phase-adjusted demodulated signals to the pixel array. The image sensor matches the phases of the respective demodulated signals using the source clock signal generated based on a reference clock signal, thereby increasing the quality of depth images.

Claims

1-5. -5. (canceled)

6. An image sensor comprising:

a photo gate controller configured to generate a plurality of demodulated signals respectively corresponding to a plurality of rows of a pixel array; and

a photo gate driver configured to adjust a phase of the demodulated signals using a source clock signal to remove power, voltage and temperature (PVT) noise and to apply the phase-adjusted demodulated signals to the pixel array.

7. The image sensor of claim 6, further comprising:

a timing generator configured to transmit the demodulated signals and a reference clock signal on the same PVT.

8. The image sensor of claim 7, wherein the timing generator comprises a plurality of first buffer groups configured to transmit the demodulated signals and a second buffer group configured to transmit the reference clock signal and the number of buffers included in each of the first buffer groups and the second buffer group is based on a path through which the demodulated signals and the reference clock signal are transmitted.

9. The image sensor of claim 6, wherein the photo gate controller is configured to receive a reference clock signal and generate the demodulated signals, a phase of the demodulated signals is one of first through fourth phases, and a frequency of the demodulated signals is lower than a frequency of the reference clock signal.

10. The image sensor of claim 6, wherein the photo gate driver is configured to generate the source clock signal having an opposite phase to a phase of a reference clock signal.

11. The image sensor of claim 6, wherein the photo gate driver comprises a phase matching block configured to change the phase of the demodulated signals in response to a rising edge of the source clock signal.

12. The image sensor of claim 11, wherein the phase matching block comprises a plurality of D flip-flops that change the phase of the demodulated signals, respectively.

13. The image sensor of claim 6, wherein the source clock signal is applied in a direction perpendicular to a progress direction of the demodulated signals.

14. The image sensor of claim 6, wherein the source clock signal is applied in a first direction perpendicular to a progress direction of the demodulated signals and a second direction opposite to the first direction.

15. The image sensor of claim 6, wherein the pixel array comprises a plurality of pixels that sense photocharges generated from incident light according to the phase-adjusted demodulate signals and respectively output pixel signals.

16. An image processing system comprising:

an image sensor including,

a pixel array including rows of pixels and configured to produce image data,

a timing generator configured to generate a plurality of gate control signals based on a reference clock, each gate control signal corresponding to one of the rows of the pixel array, and

a gate driver configured to generate matched gate control signals by changing the phases of the plurality of gate control signals such that the generated matched gate control signals have a desired phase, the gate driver configured to apply the generated matched gate control signals to the pixel array of the image sensor.

17. The image processing system of claim 16, wherein the gate driver is configured to generate a source clock signal based on the reference clock signal, the source clock signal having a phase difference from the photo gate control signals that is smaller than a phase difference between the reference clock signal and the photo gate control signals, the matched gate control signals being based on the source clock signal.

18. The image processing system of claim 17, wherein the gate driver is configured to generate the source clock signal to have a 180 degree phase difference from the reference clock signal.

19. The image processing system of claim 17, wherein the gate driver is configured to generate the source clock signal to have a frequency higher than a frequency of the gate control signals.

20. The image processing system of claim 17, wherein the gate driver includes a source clock generator configured to generate the source clock signal, the source clock generator being between lines carrying the gate control signals.