Charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor operable in either interlace or non-interlace mode
First Claim
1. A CCD image sensor comprising:
- a substrate of a semiconductor material having a surface;
a plurality of photodetectors in said substrate at said surface, said photodetectors being arranged in a column;
a CCD shift register in said substrate at said surface and extending along said column of photodetectors;
a separate transfer region in said substrate between only a portion of each of said photodetectors and the CCD shift register;
a set of first and second conductive gates extending across the CCD shift register at each of said photodetectors; and
each of the transfer regions of alternate photodetectors in the column extending under only the first gate of its respective set of gates, and each of the transfer regions of the other photodetectors in the column extending under only the second gate of its respective set of gates.
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Abstract
A charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor, which can be operated either in the interlace mode or in the non-interlace mode, includes in a substrate of a semiconductor material a plurality of photodetectors, such as photodiodes, arranged in an array of rows and columns. A separate CCD shift register in the substrate extends along each column of the photodectectors. First and second sets of conductive gates extend transversely across the CCD shift registers with each first gate extending across a portion of the photodetectors in each row and each of the second gates extending across the remaining portion of the photodetectors in each row. A transfer region extends across the substrate from a portion of each of the photodetectors to an adjacent CCD shift register. The transfer regions of alternate photodetectors in each column extends under the first gates of the photodetectors and the transfer regions of the other photodetectors in each column extends under the second gates of the respective photodetectors.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A CCD image sensor comprising:
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a substrate of a semiconductor material having a surface; a plurality of photodetectors in said substrate at said surface, said photodetectors being arranged in a column; a CCD shift register in said substrate at said surface and extending along said column of photodetectors; a separate transfer region in said substrate between only a portion of each of said photodetectors and the CCD shift register; a set of first and second conductive gates extending across the CCD shift register at each of said photodetectors; and each of the transfer regions of alternate photodetectors in the column extending under only the first gate of its respective set of gates, and each of the transfer regions of the other photodetectors in the column extending under only the second gate of its respective set of gates. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A CCD image sensor comprising:
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a substrate of a semiconductor material having a surface; a plurality of photodetectors in said substrate at said surface, said photodetectors being arranged in an array of spaced rows and columns; a plurality of CCD shift registers in said substrate with each CCD shift register extending along a separate column of the photodetectors; a transfer region between only a portion of each of said photodetectors and its adjacent CCD shift register; a separate set of first and second conductive gates extending transversely across the CCD shift registers and the photodetectors in each of the rows; the transfer regions of alternate photodetectors in each column extending under only the first gate of its respective set of gates, and the transfer regions of the other photodetectors in each column extending under only the second gate of its respective set of gates. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification