IMAGE SENSOR FOR MEASURING ILLUMINATION, PROXIMITY AND COLOR TEMPERATURE

• US 20100314543A1
• Filed: 06/03/2010
• Published: 12/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SK Hynix Inc.
• Original Assignee: Siliconfile Technologies Incorporated (SK Hynix Inc.)
• Inventors: SEO, Young- Ho, LEE, Byoung - Su, KIM, Chan-Ki
• Granted Patent: US 8,658,975 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 250/330
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/02 Details
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/0208 using focussing or collimating elements, e.g. lenses or mirrors; performing aberration correction
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/027 Control of working procedures of a spectrometer; Failure detection; Bandwidth calculation
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/0278 Control or determination of height or angle information for sensors or receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/51 using colour filters
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/513 having fixed filter-detector pairs
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/87 Combinations of systems using electromagnetic waves other than radio waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/89 for mapping or imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/4816 of receivers alone
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/491 Details of non-pulse systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/56 provided with illuminating means
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/702 SSIS architectures characterised by non-identical, non-equidistant or non-planar pixel layout
• 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

Abstract

Disclosed is an image sensor for measuring illumination, proximity and color temperature, including: a light source unit configured to irradiate infrared with a wavelength of a specific band onto an object; a light source controller configured to control power supplied to the light source unit; an infrared transmission filter configured to allow only the infrared and visible ray with the wavelength of the specific band among light incident through a lens after being reflected by the object to selectively transmit therethrough; a first sensing unit provided with an image pixel for acquiring an image of the object introduced through the infrared transmission filter; and a second sensing unit configured to receive the infrared and the visible ray having passed through the infrared transmission filter and measure current illumination, proximity to the object and color temperature of the object.

Claims

1. An image sensor for measuring illumination, proximity and color temperature, comprising:

a light source unit configured to irradiate infrared with a wavelength of a specific band onto an object;

a light source controller configured to control power supplied to the light source unit;

an infrared transmission filter configured to allow only the infrared and visible ray with the wavelength of the specific band among light incident through a lens after being reflected by the object to selectively transmit therethrough;

a first sensing unit provided with an image pixel for acquiring an image of the object introduced through the infrared transmission filter; and

a second sensing unit configured to receive the infrared and the visible ray having passed through the infrared transmission filter and measure current illumination, proximity to the object and color temperature of the object.

2. The image sensor according to claim 1, wherein the second sensing unit is provided separately from the first sensing unit while operating separately from the first sensing unit.

3. The image sensor according to claim 2, wherein the second sensing unit comprises:

an illumination detector configured to receive external light having passed through the infrared transmission filter and measure the illumination;

a proximity detector configured to receive the infrared having passed through the infrared transmission filter and measure the proximity to the object based on a difference between output voltages according to on/off of the light source unit; and

a color temperature detector configured to generate an output voltage based on the visible ray with the wavelength of the specific band, which has passed through the infrared transmission filter, and measure the color temperature of the object.

4. The image sensor according to claim 3, wherein the proximity detector comprises an infrared sensor (IR pixel), and is configured to compare an output voltage value from the infrared sensor when the light source unit is a turned off state with an output voltage value from the infrared sensor when the light source unit is a turned on state and detect the proximity to the object.

5. The image sensor of claim 4, wherein the proximity detector further comprises a visible ray cut-off filter provided on the infrared sensor.

6. The image sensor according to claim 3, wherein the color temperature detector comprises a red (R) pixel, a green (G) pixel and a blue (B) pixel, and is configured to detect an output voltage based on the visible ray with the wavelength of the specific band, which has passed through the infrared transmission filter, and measure the color temperature of the object.

7. The image sensor according to claim 6, wherein the light source unit includes an infrared light emitting diode that irradiates infrared with a wavelength of 850 nm.

8. The image sensor according to claim 7, wherein the infrared transmission filter is configured to allow the visible ray with a wavelength of 400 nm to 650 nm and the infrared with the wavelength of 850 nm to transmit therethrough.

9. The image sensor according to claim 8, wherein the light source controller is configured to turn on the infrared light emitting diode as a light source when photographing at night if illumination measured by the illumination detector receiving the external light having passed through the infrared transmission filter is equal to or less than a reference value.

10. The image sensor according to claim 8, wherein, when the infrared light emitting diode is used as a light source for proximity determination, the light source controller is configured to control turn-on and turn-off of the infrared light emitting diode to be repeated at plural times for a predetermined time.

11. The image sensor according to claim 10, wherein the light source controller is configured to control the turn-on and turn-off of the infrared light emitting diode to be repeated three to five times while maintaining a turn-on time of the infrared light emitting diode at 0.1 second or less.