Patent ID: 11943556
Assignee: GPIXEL NV
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 14:
15. A method of operating an integrated circuit image sensor comprising a pixel array, pixels of the pixel array being logically organized in pixel rows and pixel columns, and the pixel array being organized into a plurality of pixel subarrays, the method comprising:
integrating a photocharge in the pixels of the pixel array during each one of a plurality of subframe exposures comprised in a frame interval,
partially transferring the integrated photocharges of the pixels to respective charge-voltage converters of the pixels at the end of all but the last one of the plurality of subframe exposures, wherein the charge-voltage converters are configured to apply a low conversion gain when reading out the partially transferred photocharges,
completely transferring the integrated photocharges of the pixels to the respective charge-voltage converters of the pixels at the end of the last one of the plurality of subframe exposures, wherein the charge-voltage converters are configured to apply a high conversion gain and subsequently a low conversion gain when reading out the completely transferred photocharges,
sequentially reading out pixel row data of each subarray at the end of each subframe exposure, said sequentially reading out of the pixel row data further including the pipelined steps of sampling and digitizing said pixel row data, conditionally combining digitized pixel row data with previously digitized pixel row data buffered in a pixel memory unit of the readout block, and buffering digitized pixel row data in the pixel memory unit of the readout block, wherein pixel row data stemming from different pixel subarrays is being read out in parallel, and, wherein for each pixel subarray, at least two subframes exposures of the plurality of subframe exposures are overlapping in time and rolling shutter control sequences associated with said at least two subframes exposures are being time-interleaved.