WO1999031874A1 - Three-sided buttable cmos image sensor - Google Patents
Three-sided buttable cmos image sensor Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- WO1999031874A1 WO1999031874A1 PCT/US1998/026526 US9826526W WO9931874A1 WO 1999031874 A1 WO1999031874 A1 WO 1999031874A1 US 9826526 W US9826526 W US 9826526W WO 9931874 A1 WO9931874 A1 WO 9931874A1
- Authority
- WO
- WIPO (PCT)
- Prior art keywords
- image sensor
- edge
- chip
- edges
- logic
- Prior art date
Links
- 239000000758 substrate Substances 0.000 claims description 6
- 239000011295 pitch Substances 0.000 claims description 4
- 238000000034 method Methods 0.000 claims description 2
- 238000010276 construction Methods 0.000 claims 1
- 239000000872 buffer Substances 0.000 description 2
- 230000000873 masking effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000012986 modification Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000004048 modification Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000000926 separation method Methods 0.000 description 1
Classifications
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
- H04N1/00—Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
- H04N1/024—Details of scanning heads ; Means for illuminating the original
- H04N1/028—Details of scanning heads ; Means for illuminating the original for picture information pick-up
- H04N1/02805—Details of scanning heads ; Means for illuminating the original for picture information pick-up with photodetectors arranged in a two-dimensional array
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
- H01L27/00—Devices consisting of a plurality of semiconductor or other solid-state components formed in or on a common substrate
- H01L27/14—Devices consisting of a plurality of semiconductor or other solid-state components formed in or on a common substrate including semiconductor components sensitive to infrared radiation, light, electromagnetic radiation of shorter wavelength or corpuscular radiation and specially adapted either for the conversion of the energy of such radiation into electrical energy or for the control of electrical energy by such radiation
- H01L27/144—Devices controlled by radiation
- H01L27/146—Imager structures
- H01L27/14601—Structural or functional details thereof
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
- H04N1/00—Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
- H04N1/024—Details of scanning heads ; Means for illuminating the original
- H04N1/028—Details of scanning heads ; Means for illuminating the original for picture information pick-up
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
- H04N1/00—Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
- H04N1/04—Scanning arrangements, i.e. arrangements for the displacement of active reading or reproducing elements relative to the original or reproducing medium, or vice versa
- H04N1/19—Scanning arrangements, i.e. arrangements for the displacement of active reading or reproducing elements relative to the original or reproducing medium, or vice versa using multi-element arrays
- H04N1/195—Scanning arrangements, i.e. arrangements for the displacement of active reading or reproducing elements relative to the original or reproducing medium, or vice versa using multi-element arrays the array comprising a two-dimensional array or a combination of two-dimensional arrays
- H04N1/19584—Combination of arrays
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
- H04N23/00—Cameras or camera modules comprising electronic image sensors; Control thereof
- H04N23/10—Cameras or camera modules comprising electronic image sensors; Control thereof for generating image signals from different wavelengths
- H04N23/12—Cameras or camera modules comprising electronic image sensors; Control thereof for generating image signals from different wavelengths with one sensor only
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
- H04N25/00—Circuitry of solid-state image sensors [SSIS]; Control thereof
- H04N25/40—Extracting pixel data from image sensors by controlling scanning circuits, e.g. by modifying the number of pixels sampled or to be sampled
- H04N25/41—Extracting pixel data from a plurality of image sensors simultaneously picking up an image, e.g. for increasing the field of view by combining the outputs of a plurality of sensors
Definitions
- a common limit is, for example, 20 x 20 mm 2 .
- Active pixel sensors have integrated amplifiers and other logic formed on the same substrate with the image sensor chip. This obviates certain problems that are associated with charge-coupled devices.
- the typical active pixel sensor chip has logic along at least two edges of the chip. The other edges of the chip are typically formed with "guard rings" around the edge of the image sensor.
- a large format image sensor is formed from multiple, smaller, sensor chips. These chips are preferably active pixel sensors that require logic on chip to be associated with the pixels of the image sensor.
- control structure e.g., the row addressing mechanism
- these parts were located along certain edges of the chip to avoid the otherwise need to run a large number of lines across the image sensor to the rows.
- Other such structure can include a buffer to sample and hold results from the pixels, and other associated row structure.
- Previous active pixel image sensors formed a continuous rectangle at some area on the chip. At least two of the other edges were masked by the support circuitry. The presently-disclosed system goes against this established teaching.
- the chip driver circuitry is formed into the shape of two pixel pitches. The circuitry placed in a central, adjacent two columns in the image sensor. This leaves three sides of the sensor array being close to the edge of the chip, and hence buttable to other similar chips.
- the multiple butted chip assembly is used to obtain a large format image.
- the missing two pixels in the center of the array are interpolated from the neighboring sensor signals by using standard software.
- Figure 1 shows a preferred embodiment with a plurality of butted chips
- Figure 2 shows a close up of the butted area
- Figure 3 shows the layout of the driver circuit.
- FIG. 1 An image sensor of the preferred embodiment is shown in FIG. 1.
- FIG. 1 shows six of the specially-configured image sensor chips butted against each other.
- Each chip is preferably rectangular, although more generally, each of the chips needs to have a first set of parallel edges, and a second set of parallel edges.
- Each of the chips has an image sensor portion and a control portion.
- the control portion includes a centralized control portion 130 adjacent a blocked edge of the chip, and a row-local control portion 132.
- the row-local control portion 132 runs up the center of the image sensor area 102, masking a central two pixels of the image sensor.
- the image sensor portions 102 of the various separated chips are shown hatched in FIG. 1.
- Each image sensor is surrounded by a guard ring 103 that protects the image sensor, and biases the image sensor portion as appropriate.
- the guard ring is typically about 40 ⁇ m in size.
- the adjacent image sensor areas abut against each other with a separation equal to two guard rings (e.g., 80 ⁇ m) , and the roughness space.
- the distance between the adjacent image sensor areas is within 2-4 pixels. This distance between adjacent image sensor areas is preferably small enough that the missing pixels can be interpolated using standard missing pixel interpolation techniques. Preferably, the distance is less than 2 pixels.
- image sensor area 102 also abuts against image sensor area 108 of chip 110. As can be seen, the image sensor areas of each of the chips abut against each other.
- FIG. 2 shows a close up in the area 120.
- the pixel columns 200 and 202 are located in the chip 100, as is the guard ring 103.
- the pixel columns 204 and 206, and the guard ring 208, are located in the chip 106.
- a small space 210 is located between the chips.
- the image sensor should extend up to the edge, which means that no circuitry other than the guard ring is formed between the image sensor and the edge of the substrate. More preferably, the image sensor comes within 1 pixel pitch of the edge, thereby allowing interpolation to reconstruct any missing pixels.
- the pixels 204 are those adjacent pixels 202 or separated by a space that is preferably less than one - two pixels wide.
- the array of image sensors 99 therefore forms a system where each pixel is separated from each adjacent pixel in the adjacent image sensor by an amount that is small enough to allow interpolation of the missing space, to thereby obtain an uninterrupted image .
- FIG. 3 shows a close up of the area 122 in FIG. 1.
- the center two pixels of the image sensor include drivers 300, 302 for each of the pixel rows. These can be bit decoders to select the rows, or shift registers which select one row after another.
- SRAM 304 stores temporary results, and also buffers the information as needed.
- Connections 306 can couple commands to the row circuitry.
- the overall chip driver 310 can be the same as conventional, including A/D converters for each column and the like.
- Element 312 also preferably include a two- pixel interpolator that is used to interpolate for the missing pixels at areas 105 and 107. Pixel interpolation is well known in the art, and is described, for example, in US Patent no. 4,816,913. More preferably, the pixel interpolation is done in software.
- the row support circuitry can be different in shape than the described system.
- other modifications are contemplated and are also intended to be covered.
- this system suggests the row-drivers being in the center of the image sensor, they could be off center in a location, for example, that is statistically less likely to matter in the final image. Center is preferred, since this equally spaces the pixel gaps between chips and in the chip center.
Abstract
Description
Claims
Priority Applications (1)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
AU18238/99A AU1823899A (en) | 1997-12-16 | 1998-12-14 | Three-sided buttable cmos image sensor |
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
US6970097P | 1997-12-16 | 1997-12-16 | |
US60/069,700 | 1997-12-16 |
Publications (1)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
WO1999031874A1 true WO1999031874A1 (en) | 1999-06-24 |
Family
ID=22090663
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/US1998/026526 WO1999031874A1 (en) | 1997-12-16 | 1998-12-14 | Three-sided buttable cmos image sensor |
Country Status (2)
Country | Link |
---|---|
AU (1) | AU1823899A (en) |
WO (1) | WO1999031874A1 (en) |
Cited By (4)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
EP1173007A2 (en) | 2000-07-10 | 2002-01-16 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Image pickup apparatus |
EP1176808A3 (en) * | 2000-07-27 | 2003-01-02 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Image sensing apparatus |
US6906332B2 (en) * | 2001-08-30 | 2005-06-14 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Image-sensor, image-sensing apparatus using the image sensor, and image-sensing system |
US10680021B2 (en) | 2017-05-12 | 2020-06-09 | General Electric Company | Active pixel sensor computed tomography (CT) detector and method of readout |
Citations (4)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US4668333A (en) * | 1985-12-13 | 1987-05-26 | Xerox Corporation | Image sensor array for assembly with like arrays to form a longer array |
US4698131A (en) * | 1985-12-13 | 1987-10-06 | Xerox Corporation | Replaceable image sensor array |
US5031032A (en) * | 1990-03-30 | 1991-07-09 | Xerox Corporation | Color array for use in fabricating full width arrays |
US5282057A (en) * | 1990-04-23 | 1994-01-25 | Xerox Corporation | Bit-map image resolution converter |
-
1998
- 1998-12-14 AU AU18238/99A patent/AU1823899A/en not_active Abandoned
- 1998-12-14 WO PCT/US1998/026526 patent/WO1999031874A1/en active Application Filing
Patent Citations (4)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US4668333A (en) * | 1985-12-13 | 1987-05-26 | Xerox Corporation | Image sensor array for assembly with like arrays to form a longer array |
US4698131A (en) * | 1985-12-13 | 1987-10-06 | Xerox Corporation | Replaceable image sensor array |
US5031032A (en) * | 1990-03-30 | 1991-07-09 | Xerox Corporation | Color array for use in fabricating full width arrays |
US5282057A (en) * | 1990-04-23 | 1994-01-25 | Xerox Corporation | Bit-map image resolution converter |
Cited By (16)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
EP1173007A3 (en) * | 2000-07-10 | 2003-01-02 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Image pickup apparatus |
US6717151B2 (en) | 2000-07-10 | 2004-04-06 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Image pickup apparatus |
EP1173007A2 (en) | 2000-07-10 | 2002-01-16 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Image pickup apparatus |
EP2278791A3 (en) * | 2000-07-10 | 2014-01-01 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Image pickup apparatus |
US7920195B2 (en) | 2000-07-27 | 2011-04-05 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Image sensing apparatus having an effective pixel area |
EP1176808A3 (en) * | 2000-07-27 | 2003-01-02 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Image sensing apparatus |
US7071980B2 (en) | 2000-07-27 | 2006-07-04 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Image sensing apparatus |
US7630010B2 (en) | 2000-07-27 | 2009-12-08 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Image sensing apparatus having an adding circuit to provide a one-pixel signal from a plurality of photoelectric conversion sections |
US7639295B2 (en) | 2000-07-27 | 2009-12-29 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Image sensing apparatus |
US8531568B2 (en) | 2000-07-27 | 2013-09-10 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Image sensing apparatus with shielding for unit blocks of a common processing circuit of plural pixels |
US6906332B2 (en) * | 2001-08-30 | 2005-06-14 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Image-sensor, image-sensing apparatus using the image sensor, and image-sensing system |
US7847259B2 (en) | 2001-08-30 | 2010-12-07 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Image sensor, image-sensing apparatus using the image sensor, and image-sensing system |
US7952077B2 (en) | 2001-08-30 | 2011-05-31 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Image sensor, image-sensing apparatus using the image sensor, and image-sensing system |
US7842927B2 (en) | 2001-08-30 | 2010-11-30 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Image sensor, image-sensing apparatus using the image sensor, and image-sensing system |
US7564037B2 (en) | 2001-08-30 | 2009-07-21 | Canon Kabushiki Kaisha | Image sensor, image-sensing apparatus using the image sensor, and image-sensing system |
US10680021B2 (en) | 2017-05-12 | 2020-06-09 | General Electric Company | Active pixel sensor computed tomography (CT) detector and method of readout |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
AU1823899A (en) | 1999-07-05 |
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