Patent ID: 11936998
Assignee: META PLATFORMS TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 14:
15. A method comprising:
enabling a photodiode to generate a charge in response to light within an exposure period and to accumulate at least a first part of the charge as a residual charge;
enabling a charge sensing unit to accumulate at least a second part of the charge as an overflow charge;
within a first time within the exposure period, controlling a quantizer to perform a first quantization operation to quantize the overflow charge accumulated at the charge sensing unit to generate a first measurement output, the first quantization operation comprising comparing a first voltage representing a first quantity of the overflow charge with a ramping threshold voltage to determine a third time when the ramping threshold voltage becomes equal to the first voltage and generating the first measurement output based on the third time;
within a second time after the first time ends, and within the exposure period, controlling the quantizer to perform a second quantization operation to quantize the overflow charge accumulated at the charge sensing unit to generate a second measurement output, the second quantization operation comprises comparing a second voltage representing a second quantity of the overflow charge with the ramping threshold voltage to determine a fourth time when the ramping threshold voltage becomes equal to the second voltage and generating the second measurement output based on the fourth time;
determining which of the first or second measurement output to use to generate a digital output, and
in response to the determination, generating a digital output representing an intensity of the light based on the determined one of the first measurement output or the second measurement output.