Patent ID: 7379107
Filing Date: 2008-05-27
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. A method for reading out charge from an interlined CCD having a plurality of photo-sensing regions and a plurality of vertical shift registers, and each photosensitive region is mated respectively to a CCD of a vertical shift register and a color filter having a repeating pattern of two rows in which each row includes at least two colors that forms a plurality of 5 line sub-arrays sequentially numbered in the space domain; and the color filter spanning the photo-sensing regions, the method comprising: (a) sequentially or substantially simultaneously reading out sets of three lines (b) summing the charge in each set of three lines (c) sequentially or substantially simultaneously reading out sets of two lines (d) summing the charge in each set of two lines (e) transferring one or more rows of the summed charge into a first horizontal charge-coupled device; (f) transferring alternate charges in the first horizontal charge-coupled device into a second horizontal charge-coupled device; (g) summing sets of two charges of the same color in the first horizontal charge-coupled device by transferring charges within the first horizontal charge-coupled device; (h) summing sets of two charges of the same color in the second horizontal charge-coupled device by transferring charges within the second horizontal charge-coupled device; and (i) reading out the charge in both the first and second horizontal shift register with a double speed half-resolution clocking sequence.