Patent ID: 11871129
Assignee: OMNIVISION TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  G | IPC G  H

Claim 0:
1. A method for estimating a signal charge collected by a pixel of an image sensor, comprising: determining an average bias that depends on the pixel's floating-diffusion dark current and pixel-sampling period; determining a plurality of N sample-weights, as a plurality of N optimal sample-weights by solving a system of linear equations that are expressible as a product of (i) a matrix that includes a covariance matrix of a plurality of N multiple-sampling values and (ii) a vector that includes the plurality of N optimal sample-weights, wherein N is a positive integer greater than one; and determining a signal-charge estimate as the average bias subtracted from a difference between a weighted sum of the plurality of N multiple-sampling values each multiplied by a respective one of the plurality of N sample-weights that (i) collectively minimize an expected value of the signal-charge estimate squared and (ii) sum to unity.