Patent ID: 6552745
Filing Date: 2003-04-22
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
An imaging apparatus having a photosensitive area formed by a matrix of pixels in which incident light is captured, digitized, and stored, said pixels being formed on a monolithic chip, each pixel comprising:photodetecting means located within a pixel region of said monolithic chip for generating an analog photo signal that is representative to an intensity of said incident light on said each pixel; analog-to-digital converting means located within said pixel region and operatively connected to said photodetecting means for transforming said analog photo signal to a digital photo signal word, said digital photo signal word being indicative of incident light intensity information; and memory connected to said analog-to-digital means to receive said digital photo signal word, said memory including at least one memory cell located within said pixel region of said monolithic chip, each said at least one memory cell being a dual port memory cell, said dual port memory cell having a write bit line connected to receive said digital photo signal and a read bit line, said write and read bit lines being isolated such that said dual port memory cell is independently accessible with respect to read and write operations.