Imaging device

• US 7,852,388 B2
• Filed: 05/22/2007
• Issued: 12/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Collabo Innovations, Inc. (Wi-LAN Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Shimizu, Minako, Fujii, Toshiya, Inokuma, Kazuyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Nhan T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Le, Tuan H
• Application Number:
  US11/802,299
• Publication Number:
  US 20070285539A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,302 Days
• Field of Search: 348/272, 348/273, 348/275, 348277-280
• US Class Current: 348/272
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/14621 Colour filter arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/14627 Microlenses
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/14632 Wafer-level processed structures

Abstract

An imaging device free from discoloring under high temperature or high irradiation and having high color reproducibility is provided. Multilayer filters made of inorganic materials are provided above respective photoelectric conversion elements. The filters include red filters having predetermined spectra characteristics, green filters having predetermined spectral characteristics, and two kinds of blue filters having spectral characteristics different in peak wavelength.

Claims

1. An imaging device comprising an image sensor having a plurality of unit pixels arranged on a chip,

the imaging sensor comprising, for each unit pixel:

a photoelectric conversion element for photoelectrically converting incident light; and

a filter placed above the photoelectric conversion element for selectively transmitting only wavelengths of part of the incident light;

wherein the filters are multilayer filters formed of an inorganic material,

the filters consist of four types of filters which include a red filter for selectively transmitting a wavelength band belonging to red, a green filter for selectively transmitting a wavelength band belonging to green, and first and second blue filters for selectively transmitting a wavelength band belonging to blue, transmission peak wavelengths of the first and second blue filters being different from each other,

the difference in transmission peak wavelength between the first and second blue filters is 10 nm or more and less than 80 nm, and

on the image sensor, the number of the red filters is equal to the total number of the first and second blue filters;

the number of the red filters is less than the number of green filters; and

the total number of the first and second blue filters is less than the number of the green filters.

2. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

an analog front end (AFE)/AD converter (ADC) for performing analog processing for an output signal of the image sensor, converting the processed signal to a digital signal and outputting the digital signal as a video signal; and

an image processing section for processing the video image outputted from the AFE/ADC to generate a luminance signal and a color signal.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein the filters of the image sensor are placed continuously in the form of a matrix of n×

q (n and q are integers equal to or more than

     2) as a basis, and

the image processing section comprises a color signal generation block for generating a color signal by performing processing of generating a color signal at the centroid of an m×

p (m and p are integers equal to or more than

     2) matrix using m×

p matrix processing for the video signal continuously while shifting the centroid position of the m×

p matrix by one pixel at a time.

4. The device of claim 3, wherein when a plurality of filters having the same spectral characteristics are included in a range of the object of m×

p (m and p are integers equal to or more than

     2) matrix processing, the color signal generation block uses a coefficient with which a weighted average of pixel values corresponding to such filters can be obtained.

5. The device of claim 3, wherein the image processing section further comprises a luminance signal generation block for generating a luminance signal by performing processing of generating a luminance signal at the centroid of an m×

p (m and p are integers equal to or more than

     2) matrix using m×

p matrix processing for the video signal continuously while shifting the centroid position of the m×

p matrix by one pixel at a time, and

in generation of a luminance signal, the luminance signal generation block performs correction for the video signal using a luminance signal correction value obtained based on variations in spectral characteristics included in the video signal, and performs luminance generation using the corrected video signal.

6. The device of claim 3, wherein the image processing section further comprises a luminance signal generation block for generating a luminance signal by performing processing of generating a luminance signal at the centroid of an m×

p (m and p are integers equal to or more than

     2) matrix using m×

p matrix processing for the video signal continuously while shifting the centroid position of the m×

p matrix by one pixel at a time, and

the luminance signal generation block derives a luminance generation correction coefficient considering spectral characteristics of color filters in an m×

p matrix to be processed, and corrects a luminance signal generated using the video signal with the correction coefficient to thereby perform luminance signal adjustment.

7. An imaging device comprising an image sensor having a plurality of unit pixels arranged on a chip,

the imaging sensor comprising, for each unit pixel:

a photoelectric conversion element for photoelectrically converting incident light; and

a filter placed above the photoelectric conversion element for selectively transmitting only wavelengths of part of the incident light;

wherein the filters are multilayer filters formed of an inorganic material,

the filters consist of four types of filters, which include a red filter for selectively transmitting a wavelength band belonging to red, a green filter for selectively transmitting a wavelength band belonging to green, and first and second blue filters for selectively transmitting a wavelength band belonging to blue, transmission peak wavelengths of the first and second blue filters being different from each other,

the difference in transmission peak wavelength between the first and second blue filters is 10 nm or more and less than 80 nm, and

on the image sensor, the number of the red filters, the number of the first blue filters, the number of the second blue filters, and the number of the green filters are equal to one another.

8. The device of claim 7, further comprising:

an analog front end (AFE)/AD converter (ADC) for performing analog processing for an output signal of the image sensor, converting the processed signal to a digital signal and outputting the digital signal as a video signal; and

an image processing section for processing the video image outputted from the AFE/ADC to generate a luminance signal and a color signal.