Patent ID: 11929377
Assignee: INTERDIGITAL PATENT HOLDINGS, INC.
Field: Semiconductors (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. An image sensor comprising an array of pixels,
wherein a set of pixels of the array comprises pixels with different height levels arranged according to their height level and relative position to an optical axis of the image sensor,
wherein each pixel of the set can take one height level i among N different height levels, N≥3, where i=1 is the smallest height level and i=N is the highest height level, and wherein, for a pixel of the set having a first height level equal to n,2≤n≤N, and an adjacent pixel of the set having a second height level equal to m, lower than the first height level, in at least one of horizontal, vertical, or diagonal scanning direction, from a point at which the optical axis intersects the image sensor to at least one rim of the image sensor, the second height level m is equal to n−1,
wherein the array comprises rows and columns of pixels, and wherein pixels having each of the different height levels i are present in each row and each column of the array;
wherein the pixels of the set comprise color filters, and wherein, for each pixel, the height level of the pixel depends on the color selectivity of the color filter;
wherein the height pattern comprises 50% of pixels with a green color filter, 25% of pixels with a blue color filter, and 25% of pixels with a red color filter, and wherein the pixels with different color filters are interleaved in the height pattern; and
wherein the height pattern comprises 8×8 pixels arranged as follows:, RGBGGBGR

BGRGGRGB

GBGRRGBG

GRGBBGRG

BGRGGRGB

RGBGGBGR

GRGBBGRG
or
GBGRRGBG

GRGBBGRG

GBGRRGBG

BGRGGRGB

RGBGGBGR

GBGRRGBG

GRGBBGRG

RGBGGBGR

BGRGGRGB

where R stands for a pixel with a red color filter, B stands for a pixel with a blue color filter and G stands for a pixel with a green color filter.