Highly sensitive image sensor providing continuous magnification of the detected image and method of using
First Claim
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1. In the method of sensing the magnitude of at least one point of an image by means of at least one image sensing cell;
- said method including at least one cycle of the steps of;
establishing a condition of electrical balance; and
causing a condition of electrical off-balance by exposure to an image;
the improvement comprising the additional step of;
developing an image signal within said at least one image sensing cell by effecting a limited amount of continuous magnification responsive to said condition of electrical offbalance;
whereby the magnitudes of said image and said image signal will be related by a definite degree of magnification.
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Abstract
An image sensor having image sensing cells of extreme sensitivity, wherein, in a preferred embodiment, each cell has at least one pair of cross-coupled current control elements that provide regenerative feedback so that microscopic image influences will be continuously magnified until they become sufficiently large for sensing. The continuous magnification is allowed to take place only at a controlled rate and during a controlled time, thereby causing a controlled degree of magnification of the image signal to be developed within each cell.
48 Citations
33 Claims
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1. In the method of sensing the magnitude of at least one point of an image by means of at least one image sensing cell;
- said method including at least one cycle of the steps of;
establishing a condition of electrical balance; and causing a condition of electrical off-balance by exposure to an image; the improvement comprising the additional step of; developing an image signal within said at least one image sensing cell by effecting a limited amount of continuous magnification responsive to said condition of electrical offbalance; whereby the magnitudes of said image and said image signal will be related by a definite degree of magnification. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12)
- said method including at least one cycle of the steps of;
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11. The method of sensing the magnitude of at least one point of an image by means of at least one image sensing cell;
- said method including at least one cycle of the steps of;
establishing a condition of electrical balance;
said condition of electrical balance including a compensating electrical off-balance to compensate for manufacturing imbalances in the electrical components;causing an image-responsive condition of electrical off-balance by exposure to an image; and developing an image signal within said at least one image sensing cell by a limited amount of continuous magnification of said conditions of compensating and image-responsive electrical off-balance. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
- said method including at least one cycle of the steps of;
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18. An image sensor for sensing the magnitude of at least one point of an image, said image sensor having at least one image sensing cell having:
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means to establish a condition of electrical balance; means to cause a condition of electrical off-balance in response to an image; means to cause a limited amount of continuous magnification responsive to said condition of electrical off-balance. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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Specification