Physical information acquisition method, physical information acquisition device, and semiconductor device

• US 7,755,016 B2
• Filed: 07/20/2006
• Issued: 07/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Sato, Genta, Toda, Atsushi
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; John R
• Application Number:
  US11/458,871
• Publication Number:
  US 20070201738A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,454 Days
• Field of Search: 250/208.1, 250/226, 250/338.1, 250/339.01, 250/339.05, 348/272, 348/273, 348/278, 348/279, 348/280
• US Class Current: 250/208.1
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/14647 Multicolour imagers having a stacked pixel-element structure, e.g. npn, npnpn or MQW elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/84 for processing colour signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/88 for colour balance, e.g. white-balance circuits or colour temperature control
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/131 including elements passing infrared wavelengths
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/133 including elements passing panchromatic light, e.g. filters passing white light
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/136 using complementary colours
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/70 SSIS architectures; Circuits associated therewith
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/33 Transforming infrared radiation cameras or camera modules for generating image signals from infrared radiation H04N23/20; circuitry of SSIS for transforming infrared radiation into image signals H04N25/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/64 Circuits for processing colour signals H04N9/77 takes precedence; camera processing pipelines for processing colour signals H04N23/84

Abstract

A physical information acquisition device uses a device including a detection unit for detecting electromagnetic waves, and a unit signal generating unit for generating and outputting the corresponding unit signal based on the amount of electromagnetic waves detected by the detection unit for detecting a physical quantity distribution in which the unit components are disposed on the same substrate in a predetermined sequence, for acquiring physical information for a predetermined application based on the unit signal. The physical information acquisition device includes a first detection unit which detects first wavelength region components following second wavelength region components different from the first wavelength region components being separated from the first wavelength region components beforehand; a second detection unit which detects wavelength region components for correction including at least the second wavelength region components; and a signal processing unit for obtaining physical information relating to the first wavelength region components from which at least a part of influence of the second wavelength region components is eliminated using the unit signal detected by the first detection unit, and the unit signal detected by the second detection unit.

Claims

1. A method, said method comprising:

detecting a corresponding wavelength region of visible light with at least one visible light detection unit coupled to an image signal processing unit, each said visible light detection unit having no means for infrared light filtering and comprising a color filter adapted to transmit the corresponding wavelength region of visible light;

detecting a wavelength region of infrared light with at least one infrared light detection unit coupled to the image signal processing unit, each said infrared light detection unit comprising a black filter, said black filter being separately disposed from each said color filter and having a transmittance of generally one for light having a wavelength of 780 nm and greater, and a transmittance of generally zero for light having a wavelength of less than 700 nm; and

correcting, with the signal processing unit, a first signal received from the at least one visible light detection unit by subtracting a product from said first signal, said product resulting from multiplication of a second signal received from the at least one infrared light detection unit and a predetermined coefficient factor.

2. An apparatus comprising:

at least one visible light detection unit coupled to an image signal processing unit, each said visible light detection unit having no means for infrared light filtering and comprising a color filter adapted to transmit a corresponding wavelength region of visible light;

at least one infrared light detection unit adapted to detect a wavelength region of infrared light and coupled to said image signal processing unit, each said infrared light detection unit comprising a black filter, said black filter being separately disposed from each said color filter and having a transmittance of generally one for light having a wavelength of 780 nm and greater, and a transmittance of generally zero for light having a wavelength of less than 700 nm;

wherein

the signal processing unit corrects a first signal received from the at least one visible light detection unit by subtracting a product from said first signal, said product resulting from multiplication of a second signal received from the at least one infrared light detection unit and a predetermined coefficient factor.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the signal processing unit corrects the first signal by adding nonlinear signal components multiplied by the predetermined coefficient.

4. The apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a driving unit for controlling the detection time of the infrared detection unit.

5. The apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the signal processing unit integrates the unit signal of the wavelength region of infrared light multiple times, and corrects a unit signal detected by the visible light detection unit using the integrated unit signal of the wavelength region of infrared light.

6. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the apparatus comprises a semiconductor device, the semiconductor device comprising having, on a common substrate, the at least one visible light detection unit and the at least one infrared light detection unit.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the first detection unit and the second detection unit are disposed periodically with a certain numerical ratio.

8. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the first detection unit and the second detection unit are disposed one to one.