Charge-coupled device image sensor with efficient binning of same-color pixels
First Claim
1. A charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor, comprising:
- a plurality of photosensitive elements arranged in rows and columns;
a plurality of vertical CCDs each having vertical shift elements associated with respective ones of the photosensitive elements of a corresponding one of the columns; and
a horizontal CCD coupled to the vertical CCDs;
wherein the horizontal CCD comprises a repetitive arrangement of a group of three horizontal shift elements, wherein at least two adjacent horizontal shift elements in each group are configured to receive shifted charge packets directly from respective ones of the vertical CCDs and at least one horizontal shift element is configured to receive charge packets directly from an adjacent horizontal shift element.
11 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A CCD image sensor comprises photosensitive elements arranged in rows and columns, vertical CCDs each having vertical shift elements associated with respective ones of the photosensitive elements of a corresponding one of the columns, and a horizontal CCD coupled to each of the vertical CCDs. The horizontal CCD comprises horizontal shift elements of two different types interspersed with one another. The horizontal shift elements of the first type are configured to receive shifted charge packets directly from respective ones of the vertical CCDs. The horizontal shift elements of the second type are configured not to receive shifted charge packets directly from any of the vertical CCDs. This configuration facilitates binning of same-color pixels for both sparse CFA patterns and Bayer CFA patterns.
-
Citations
27 Claims
-
1. A charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor, comprising:
-
a plurality of photosensitive elements arranged in rows and columns; a plurality of vertical CCDs each having vertical shift elements associated with respective ones of the photosensitive elements of a corresponding one of the columns; and a horizontal CCD coupled to the vertical CCDs; wherein the horizontal CCD comprises a repetitive arrangement of a group of three horizontal shift elements, wherein at least two adjacent horizontal shift elements in each group are configured to receive shifted charge packets directly from respective ones of the vertical CCDs and at least one horizontal shift element is configured to receive charge packets directly from an adjacent horizontal shift element. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. A method of reading out a charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor, the image sensor comprising a plurality of photosensitive elements arranged in rows and columns, a plurality of vertical CCDs each having vertical shift elements associated with respective ones of the photosensitive elements of a corresponding one of the columns, and a horizontal CCD coupled to the vertical CCDs, wherein the horizontal CCD comprises a repetitive arrangement of a group of three horizontal shift elements where at least two adjacent horizontal shift elements in each group are configured to receive shifted charge packets directly from respective ones of the vertical CCDs and at least one horizontal shift element is configured to receive charge packets from an adjacent horizontal shift element, the method comprising:
-
shifting charge packets vertically from each vertical CCD into respective horizontal shift elements; shifting the charge packets in the horizontal CCD horizontally one horizontal shift element; and combining only respective ones of the charge packets in each group of three horizontal shift elements with additional charge packets by shifting charge packets vertically from each vertical CCD into respective horizontal shift elements. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. A digital imaging device comprising:
-
a charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor; and one or more processing elements configured to process outputs of the image sensor to generate a digital image; wherein said image sensor comprises; a plurality of photosensitive elements arranged in rows and columns; a plurality of vertical CCDs each having vertical shift elements associated with respective ones of the photosensitive elements of a corresponding one of the columns; and a horizontal CCD coupled to each of the vertical CCDs; wherein the horizontal CCD comprises a repetitive arrangement of a group of three horizontal shift elements, wherein at least two adjacent horizontal shift elements in each group are configured to receive shifted charge packets directly from respective ones of the vertical CCDs and at least one horizontal shift element is configured to receive charge packets directly from an adjacent horizontal shift element. - View Dependent Claims (19)
-
-
20. A charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor, comprising:
-
a plurality of photosensitive elements arranged in rows and columns and configured in accordance with a sparse color filter array pattern; a plurality of vertical CCDs each having vertical shift elements associated with respective ones of the photosensitive elements of a corresponding one of the columns; and a horizontal CCD, configured to provide binning of same-color charge packets without binning of panchromatic charge packets, coupled to each of the vertical CCDs, wherein the horizontal CCD comprises horizontal shift elements of two different types interspersed with one another, with horizontal shift elements of the first type being configured to receive shifted charge packets directly from respective ones of the vertical CCDs and horizontal shift elements of the second type being configured not to receive shifted charge packets directly from any of the vertical CCDs. - View Dependent Claims (21)
-
-
22. A charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor, comprising:
a plurality of photosensitive elements arranged in rows and columns and configured in accordance with a sparse color filter array pattern, a minimal repeating unit of the sparse color filter array pattern comprising 16 contiguous pixels arranged as follows;
-
23. A charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor, comprising:
-
a plurality of photosensitive elements arranged in rows and columns and configured in accordance with a Bayer color filter array pattern; a plurality of vertical CCDs each having vertical shift elements associated with respective ones of the photosensitive elements of a corresponding one of the columns; and a bidirectional horizontal CCD coupled to each of the vertical CCDs and configured to provide binning of four green charge packets, binning of two red charge packets and binning of two blue charge packets, wherein the horizontal CCD comprises horizontal shift elements of two different types interspersed with one another, with horizontal shift elements of the first type being configured to receive shifted charge packets directly from respective ones of the vertical CCDs and horizontal shift elements of the second type being configured not to receive shifted charge packets directly from any of the vertical CCDs. - View Dependent Claims (24)
-
-
25. A charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor, comprising:
-
a plurality of photosensitive elements arranged in rows and columns and configured in accordance with a Bayer color filter array pattern; a plurality of vertical CCDs each having vertical shift elements associated with respective ones of the photosensitive elements of a corresponding one of the columns; and a bidirectional horizontal CCD coupled to each of the vertical CCDs and configured to provide binning of three green charge packets, binning of either two red charge packets or two blue charge packets, and no binning of charge packets of the remaining color; wherein the horizontal CCD comprises and horizontal shift elements of two different types interspersed with one another, with horizontal shift elements of the first type being configured to receive shifted charge packets directly from respective ones of the vertical CCDs and horizontal shift elements of the second type being configured not to receive shifted charge packets directly from any of the vertical CCDs.
-
-
26. A method of reading out a charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor, the image sensor comprising a plurality of photosensitive elements arranged in rows and columns, the method comprising:
-
shifting charge packets through a plurality of vertical CCDs each having vertical shift elements associated with respective ones of the photosensitive elements of a corresponding one of the columns; and shifting the charge packets through a horizontal CCD coupled to each of the vertical CCDs, wherein the horizontal CCD comprises horizontal shift elements of two different types interspersed with one another, with horizontal shift elements of the first type being configured to receive shifted charge packets directly from respective ones of the vertical CCDs and horizontal shift elements of the second type being configured not to receive shifted charge packets directly from any of the vertical CCDs, and wherein the shifting steps further comprise at least a first vertical shift in the vertical CCDs, followed by a shift in a first direction in the horizontal CCD, followed by a second vertical shift in the vertical CCDs, followed by a shift in a second direction in the horizontal CCD, followed by a third vertical shift in the vertical CCDs, followed by another shift in the first direction in the horizontal CCD, followed by a fourth vertical shift in the vertical CCDs.
-
-
27. A method of reading out a charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor, the image sensor comprising a plurality of photosensitive elements arranged in rows and columns and configured in accordance with a sparse color filter array pattern, the method comprising the steps of:
-
shifting charge packets through a plurality of vertical CCDs each having vertical shift elements associated with respective ones of the photosensitive elements of a corresponding one of the columns; and shifting the charge packets through a horizontal CCD coupled to each of the vertical CCDs; wherein the horizontal CCD comprises horizontal shift elements of two different types interspersed with one another, with horizontal shift elements of the first type being configured to receive shifted charge packets directly from respective ones of the vertical CCDs and horizontal shift elements of the second type being configured not to receive shifted charge packets directly from any of the vertical CCDs, and wherein the shifting steps provide binning of same-color charge packets without binning of panchromatic charge packets.
-
Specification