Image sensor with transparent capacitive regions
First Claim
1. An image sensor comprising a transparent substrate supporting a two dimensional array of photosensitive and switching elements with switching signal conductors and data signal conductors connected to the photosensitive and switching elements for enabling individual photosensitive elements to be accessed, the photosensitive and switching elements and conductors being arranged such that at least half of the area of the image sensor is transparent during operation, characterized in that each photosensitive element is electrically coupled to a respective capacitor for storing charge generated as a result of light being incident on the photosensitive element, the capacitors being formed so as to be transparent and so as to occupy a significant part of the entire area of the array.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The image sensor (1a) has a transparent substrate (2) supporting a two dimensional array (3) of photosensitive and switching elements (4) with switching signal conductors (5) and data signal conductors (6) connected to the photosensitive and switching elements (4) for enabling individual photosensitive elements to be accessed. The photosensitive and switching elements (4) and the conductors (5 and 6) are arranged such that at least half of the area of the image sensor is transparent during operation. Each photosensitive element is electrically coupled to a respective capacitor (7) for storing charge generated as a result of light being incident on the photosensitive element. The capacitors (7) are formed so as to be transparent and so as to occupy a significant part of the entire area of the array (3). The transparent capacitors act effectively to increase the sensitivity of the photosensitive elements by enabling a high quantity of charge to be stored in response to light incident on the photosensitive elements so enabling the photosensitive elements (4) to be quite small while still providing sufficient signal to enable high accuracy in the sensing of an image.
150 Citations
14 Claims
- 1. An image sensor comprising a transparent substrate supporting a two dimensional array of photosensitive and switching elements with switching signal conductors and data signal conductors connected to the photosensitive and switching elements for enabling individual photosensitive elements to be accessed, the photosensitive and switching elements and conductors being arranged such that at least half of the area of the image sensor is transparent during operation, characterized in that each photosensitive element is electrically coupled to a respective capacitor for storing charge generated as a result of light being incident on the photosensitive element, the capacitors being formed so as to be transparent and so as to occupy a significant part of the entire area of the array.
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14. An image sensor comprising a transparent substrate supporting a two dimensional array of photosensitive and switching elements and switching signal conductors and data signal conductors connected to the photosensitive and switching elements for enabling individual photosensitive elements to be accessed, the photosensitive and switching elements and conductors being arranged such that a substantial part of the area of the image sensor is transparent, the switching signal conductors being opaque and the photosensitive and switching elements being provided on the switching signal conductors so as to be shielded from the transparent substrate characterized in that two or more photosensitive elements are associated with the same pair of switching signal and data signal conductors and are arranged to have different switching signal thresholds so that the two or more photosensitive elements can be accessed separately by applying different threshold switching signals to the switching signal conductor.
Specification