Patent Abstract:
A method for reading out an image signal includes providing at least two photosensitive regions and providing at least two transfer gates respectively associated with each photosensitive region. The method also includes providing a common charge-to-voltage conversion region electrically connected to the transfer gates and providing a reset mechanism that resets the common charge-to-voltage conversion region. After transferring charge from at least one of the photo-sensitive regions, all the transfer gates are disabled at a first time. The method further includes enabling at least one transfer gate at a subsequent second time and transferring charge from at least one of the photosensitive regions at a subsequent third time while the at least one transfer gate from the second time remains enabled.

Full Description:
REFERENCE TO PRIOR APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a divisional and claims priority to U.S. application Ser. No. 11/742,883, filed May 1, 2007, now pending. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention relates generally to the field of image sensors and, more particularly, to such image sensors having variable gain control. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       FIG. 1  shows the typical CMOS active pixel image sensor  100 . The basic component of the image sensor  100  is the array of photosensitive pixels  130 . The row decoder circuitry  105  selects an entire row of pixels  130  to be sampled by the correlated double sampling (CDS) circuitry  125 . The analog-to-digital converter  115  scans across the column decoders and digitizes the signals stored in the CDS  125 . The analog-to-digital converter  115  may be of the type which has one converter for each column (parallel) or one high-speed converter to digitize each column serially. The digitized data may be directly output from the image sensor  100  or there may be integrated image processing  120  for defect correction, color filter interpolation, image scaling, and other special effects. The timing generator  110  controls the row and column decoders to sample the entire pixel array or only a portion of the pixel array. 
       FIG. 2  shows one pixel of a CMOS image sensor  100 . There is a photodiode  151  to collect photo-generated electrons. When the signal is read from the photodiode  151  the RG signal is pulsed to reset the floating diffusion node  155  to the VDD potential through the reset transistor  150 . The row select signal RSEL is turned on to connect the output transistor  153  to the output signal line through the row select transistor  154 . CDS circuit  125  samples the reset voltage level on the output signal line. Next, the transfer transistor  152  is pulsed on and off to transfer charge from the photodiode  151  to the floating diffusion  155 . The new voltage level on the output signal line minus the reset voltage level is proportional to the amount of charge on the floating diffusion. 
     The magnitude of the floating diffusion voltage change is given by V=Q/C where Q is the amount of charge collected by the photodiode  151  and C is the capacitance of the floating diffusion node  155 . If the capacitance C is too small and the charge Q is too large, then the voltage output will be too large for the CDS circuit  125 . This problem commonly occurs when the pixel size is 2.7 μm or larger and the power supply voltage VDD is 3.3 V or less. The prior art solution to this problem has generally consisted of placing extra capacitance on the floating diffusion node  155 . 
     In  FIG. 3 , U.S. Pat. No. 6,730,897 discloses increasing the floating diffusion node  160  capacitance by adding a capacitor  161  connected between the floating diffusion  160  and GND. In  FIG. 4 , U.S. Pat. No. 6,960,796 discloses increasing the floating diffusion node  162  capacitance by adding a capacitor  163  connected between the floating diffusion  162  and the power supply VDD. The prior art does increase the floating diffusion node capacitance enough to ensure the maximum output voltage is within the power supply limit at maximum photodiode charge capacity. However, the prior art solution is not optimum for low light level conditions. When there is a very small amount of charge in the photodiode, the larger floating diffusion capacitance lowers the voltage output making it harder to measure small signals. A need exists to have a small floating diffusion capacitance (for increased voltage output) when imaging in low light levels and a large floating diffusion capacitance (to lower voltage output below the power supply range) when imaging in high light levels. This is a form of gain control within the pixel. 
       FIG. 5  shows a pixel with an extra “dangling” transistor  165  connected to the floating diffusion node  166 . This pixel is from US Patent Application Publication 2006/0103749A1. Switching on the transistor  165  with the AUX signal line increases the capacitance of the floating diffusion  166 . This method of changing the floating diffusion capacitance requires four transistor gates  165 ,  167 ,  168 , and  169  to closely surround and directly electrically connected to the floating diffusion node  166 . The presence of four transistor gates does not allow for the smallest possible floating diffusion node capacitance. When the transistor  165  is turned off, the gate still adds some additional capacitance compared to the case where only three transistors are adjacent to the floating diffusion. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 7,075,049 also shows pixels with the ability to change the floating diffusion node capacitance. It also has the requirement of four transistors adjacent to the floating diffusion node. Therefore, the pixel designs in U.S. Pat. No. 7,075,049 does not provide for the smallest possible floating diffusion capacitance. 
     The present invention discloses a pixel where the floating diffusion capacitance can be changed. Furthermore, the present invention will only require three transistor gates to be adjacent to the floating diffusion and not require additional signal lines be added to the pixel. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above. Briefly summarized, according to one aspect of the present invention, described is a method for reading out an image signal, the method comprising: providing at least two photosensitive regions; providing at least two transfer gates respectively associated with each photosensitive region; providing a common charge-to-voltage conversion region electrically connected to the transfer gates; providing a reset mechanism that resets the common charge-to-voltage conversion region; after transferring charge from at least one of the photo-sensitive regions, disabling all transfer gates at a first time; enabling at least one transfer gate at a subsequent second time; and transferring charge from at least one of the photosensitive regions at a subsequent third time while the at least one transfer gate from the second time remains enabled. 
     The above and other objects of the present invention will become more apparent when taken in conjunction with the following description and drawings wherein identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to the figures. 
     ADVANTAGEOUS EFFECT OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention has the following advantage of variable gain control having only three transistor gates adjacent the floating diffusion and does not require additional signal lines. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a prior art CMOS active pixel image sensor; 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic of a prior art CMOS active pixel; 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic of a prior art CMOS active pixel with a capacitor to GND to reduce charge conversion gain; 
         FIG. 4  is a schematic of a prior art CMOS active pixel with a capacitor to VDD to reduce charge conversion gain; 
         FIG. 5  is a schematic of a prior art CMOS active pixel with a dangling transistor to reduce charge conversion gain; 
         FIG. 6  is a schematic of a CMOS active pixel sensor used in the present invention; 
         FIG. 7  is a cross section of a CMOS active pixel sensor showing the photodiodes, transfer gates and charge-to-voltage conversion region; 
         FIG. 8  shows the channel potentials of the transfer gates and charge-to-voltage conversion region for the first embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 9  shows the linearity curves of the first embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 10  shows the channel potentials of the transfer gates and charge-to-voltage conversion region for the second embodiment of the present invention when a small charge is measured; 
         FIG. 11  shows the channel potentials of the transfer gates and charge-to-voltage conversion region for the second embodiment of the present invention when a large charge is measured; 
         FIG. 12  shows the linearity curves of the second embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 13  shows the channel potentials of the transfer gates and charge-to-voltage conversion region for the third embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 14  is a CMOS active pixel image sensor employing a pixel using the present invention; and 
         FIG. 15  is a digital camera using a CMOS active pixel image sensor employing a pixel with the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Before discussing the present invention in detail, it is instructive to note that the present invention is preferably used in, but not limited to, a CMOS active pixel sensor. Active pixel sensor refers to an active electrical element within the pixel, other than transistors functioning as switches. For example, the floating diffusion or amplifiers are active elements. CMOS refers to complementary metal oxide silicon type electrical components such as transistors which are associated with the pixel, but typically not in the pixel, and which are formed when the source/drain of a transistor is of one dopant type (for example p-type) and its mated transistor is of the opposite dopant type (for example n-type). CMOS devices include some advantages one of which is it consumes less power. 
       FIG. 6  shows a CMOS pixel  200  capable of implementing the invention. It has two photosensitive regions shown as photodiodes  201  and  202 . Each photodiode  201  and  202  is connected to a common charge-to-voltage conversion node  205  by transfer gates  203  and  204 . Reset transistor  206  is used to set the charge-to-voltage conversion node  205  to the power supply voltage  210 . The output transistor  207  is used to drive the output signal line  209  when the row select transistor  208  is enabled. 
       FIG. 7  shows a horizontal cross-section through the fabricated pixel  200 . The transfer gates  204  and  203  are shown surrounding an implanted diffusion serving as the charge-to-voltage conversion node  205 . The photodiode implants  201  and  202  are below a surface pinning layer implant  211 . This type of photodiode is commonly referred to as a pinned photodiode. Above each pixel is a color filter material  220  and  221  that are of the same or different colors. An array of microlenses  222  and  223  focus light rays  224  into the photodiode areas of the pixel. 
     Under the cross-section in  FIG. 7 , there is shown the electric channel potentials under the various regions of the pixel  200 .  231  is the channel potential under the transfer gate  204  when the transfer gate is in the off state.  233  is the channel potential under the transfer gate  203  when the transfer gate is in the off state.  232  is the channel potential of the charge-to-voltage conversion node  205  after node  205  has been reset by transistor  206  (as shown in  FIG. 6 ). Areas  230  and  234  represent the amount of photo-generated charge in the photodiodes  201  and  202 . 
     In  FIG. 8 , there is shown only the channel potential diagram of  FIG. 7  at the various time steps of sampling the photo-generated charge  230 ,  234  in the photodiodes  201 ,  202 . The process of sampling the photo-generated charge  230 ,  234  in the photodiodes  201 ,  202  begins at time step T 0  where one photodiode charge  230  is less than the other photodiode charge  234 . 
     The reason for the difference of charge, for example, might be caused by photodiode  202  having a longer integration time or color filter  221  might be more transparent or pass a wider range of colors. Microlens  223  may also be fabricated to collect more light than microlens  222 . Any of these features may be incorporated into the present invention. Time step T 0  is after the charge-to-voltage conversion region  205  has been reset to channel potential  232 . The reset voltage of the charge-to-voltage conversion region  205  is also sampled at this time. At time step T 1  transfer gate  204  is turned on to transfer charge  230  to the charge-to-voltage conversion region  205 . Next, at time step T 2 , transfer gate  204  is turned off and the new voltage on the charge-to-voltage conversion region  205  is sampled and subtracted from the reset voltage level to measure the amount of charge  230 . At time step T 3  the charge-to-voltage conversion region is reset again and the reset voltage level is sampled. At time step T 4  transfer gate  204  is turned on to a voltage level that increases the capacitance of the charge-to-voltage conversion region  205 . The charge-to-voltage conversion region  205  may be reset at time step T 4  instead of time step T 3 . The transfer gate  204  is still on when transfer gate  203  is also turned on at time step T 5  to transfer charge  234  to the charge-to-voltage conversion region  205 . When transfer gate  203  is turned off in time step T 6  the charge  234  spreads out over a larger area that has a higher capacitance than when transfer gate  204  was off in time step T 2 . 
     Now consider the relationship between charge, Q, capacitance, C, and voltage, V given by V=Q/C. A higher capacitance means there will be less voltage change on the charge-to-voltage conversion region so it can hold a larger amount of charge. Higher capacitance corresponds to less charge-to-voltage conversion gain. Thus, the present invention can sample small amounts of charge with high gain with both transfer gates turned off and it can also sample large amounts of charge with one of the transfer gates turned on. 
     It is advantageous to transfer charge from the photodiode with the most charge last because that is the time at which the charge-to-voltage conversion region can have the highest capacitance by turning on transfer gates from empty photodiodes. It is also obvious that the invention can be extended to pixels that share more than two photodiodes. It is also obvious that, with more than two photodiodes, there can be more than two levels of charge-to-voltage conversion region capacitance control. 
       FIG. 9  shows the output voltage of the pixel vs. the amount of charge collected in a photodiode. When charge is sampled with both transfer gates turned off, the pixel is in high gain mode and produces output voltage curve  240  which reaches saturation at low charge levels. When charge is sampled with one transfer gate turned on, the pixel is in low gain mode and produces output voltage curve  241 , which reaches saturation at higher charge levels. 
     In the second embodiment of the present invention, the pixel structure is the same as shown in  FIGS. 7 and 8  but the operation of the transfer gates is different. In  FIG. 10 , time step T 0  is after the charge-to-voltage conversion region  205  has been reset to channel potential  232 . The reset voltage of the charge-to-voltage conversion region  205  is also sampled at this time. At time step T 1  transfer gate  204  is turned on to transfer charge  230  to the charge-to-voltage conversion region  205 . Next, at time step T 2 , transfer gate  204  is turned off and the new voltage on the charge-to-voltage conversion region  205  is sampled and subtracted from the reset voltage level to measure the amount of charge  230 . At time step T 3  the charge-to-voltage conversion region  205  is reset again and the reset voltage level is sampled. At time step T 4  transfer gate  204  is partially turned on to a voltage level that sets the transfer gate channel potential  231  between the photodiode channel potential and the reset voltage level potential  232 . At time step T 5  transfer gate  203  is turned on to transfer charge  234  to the charge-to-voltage conversion region  205  and then the transfer gate  203  is turned off at time step T 6 . 
     The advantage of the partial turn on of the transfer gate  204  is the charge-to-voltage conversion region capacitance will be high for small charge and the capacitance will be low for large charge.  FIG. 10  shows a case where the charge  234  is small and does not fill up the charge-to-voltage conversion region  205  beyond the transfer gate  204  channel potential  231  at time step T 6 . Therefore in this case the charge  234  is measured with a low capacitance high voltage conversion gain. In the case of  FIG. 11 , the charge  234  is large and when it is transferred to the charge-to-voltage conversion region  205  it flows on top of the channel potential  231  at time step T 6 . Now the large charge  234  is measured with a large capacitance lower voltage conversion gain. 
       FIG. 12  shows the voltage response of the charge-to-voltage conversion region  205  in the second embodiment vs. the amount of charge collected in the photodiode. When the charge is large, above point  243 , then the slope of the voltage response decreases and follows curve  244 . If the transfer gate  204  had been turned off instead of partially turned on, the voltage response would have followed the higher gain curve  242 . The second embodiment allows for high gain at low signal levels and low gain at high signal levels. 
     In the third embodiment of the present invention, the pixel structure is the same as shown in  FIGS. 7 and 8  but the operation of the transfer gates is different. The third embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in  FIG. 13 . At time step T 0  the charge-to-voltage conversion region  205  has just been reset and its voltage sampled as V 1 . At time T 1  transfer gate  204  is turned on to transfer charge  230  to the charge-to-voltage conversion region  205 . While the transfer gate  204  is still on, the charge-to-voltage conversion region  205  voltage is sampled as V 2 . A time step T 2  the transfer gate  204  is turned off and the charge-to-voltage conversion region  205  voltage is sampled as V 3 . 
     The voltage V 3 -V 1  represents the high conversion gain measurement of the charge  230 . The voltage V 2 -V 1  represents the low conversion gain measurement of the charge  230 . However, V 2 -V 1  includes an offset error caused by the capacitive coupling of the transfer gate  204  to the charge-to-voltage conversion region  205 . To remove this offset error, the charge-to-voltage conversion region  205  is again reset at time step T 3  and its voltage is measured as V 4 . Next at time step T 4  the transfer gate  204  is turned on again and held on while the charge-to-voltage conversion region  205  voltage is measured as V 5 . By measuring V 5  when there was no charge in the photodiode  201 , the offset error is obtained as V 5 -V 4 . Now the correct low conversion gain measurement is V 2 -V 1 -(V 5 -V 4 ). 
     For a less accurate measurement voltage V 4  may be eliminated and V 1  used in its place. In this case the low conversion gain measurement is V 2 -V 1 -(V 5 -V 1 ) or V 2 - 2 V 1 -V 5 . 
     The third embodiment can be applied to a CMOS active pixel that has any number of photodiodes sharing a common charge-to-voltage conversion region. The steps of  FIG. 13  are repeated for each one of the photodiodes. 
     The advantage of the third embodiment is every pixel of the image sensor is sampled with both a high and low charge-to-voltage conversion gain. An advantage of all embodiments of the invention is they do not require the addition of any transistors or signal wires. 
       FIG. 14  shows a CMOS active pixel image sensor  300  of the present invention having a pixel  308  where its transfer gates are operated with charge-to-voltage conversion gain control of the present invention. The basic component of the image sensor  300  is the array of photosensitive pixels  308 . The row decoder circuitry  305  selects an entire row of pixel  308  to be sampled by the correlated double sampling (CDS) circuitry  325 . The analog-to-digital converter  315  scans across the column decoders and digitizes the signals stored in the CDS. The analog-to-digital converter  315  may be of the type that has one converter for each column (parallel) or one high-speed converter to digitize each column serially. The digitized data may be directly output from the image sensor  300  or there may be integrated image processing  320  for defect correction, color filter interpolation, image scaling, and other special effects. The timing generator  310  controls the row and column decoders to sample the entire pixel array or only a portion of the pixel array. 
       FIG. 15  shows the image sensor  300  employing a pixel where its transfer gates are operated with charge-to-voltage conversion gain control in an electronic imaging system, preferably a digital camera  400 . 
     The present invention has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment. However, it will be appreciated that variations and modifications can be effected by a person of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. 
     PARTS LIST 
     
         
           100  image sensor 
           105  row decoder circuitry 
           110  timing generator 
           115  analog-to-digital converter 
           120  integrated image processing 
           125  correlated double sampling (CDS) circuitry 
           130  photosensitive pixel 
           150  reset transistor 
           151  photodiode 
           152  transfer transistor 
           153  output transistor 
           154  row select transistor 
           155  floating diffusion node 
           160  floating diffusion node 
           161  capacitor 
           162  floating diffusion node 
           163  capacitor 
           165  extra “dangling” transistor gate 
           166  floating diffusion node 
           167  transistor gate 
           168  transistor gate 
           169  transistor gate 
           200  pixel 
           201  photodiode implants 
           202  photodiode implants 
           203  transfer gate 
           204  transfer gate 
           205  change-to-voltage conversion node 
           206  reset transistor 
           207  output transistor 
           208  row select transistor 
           209  output signal line 
           210  power supply voltage 
           211  surface pinning layer implant/pinned-photodiode 
           220  color filter material 
           221  color filter material 
           222  microlens 
           223  microlens 
           224  light rays 
           230  photo-generated charge (photodiode) 
           231  channel potential 
           232  channel potential 
           233  channel potential 
           234  photo-generated charge (photodiode) 
           240  output voltage curve 
           241  output voltage curve 
           242  higher gain curve 
           243  point 
           244  curve 
           300  image sensor 
           305  row decoder circuitry 
           308  photosensitive pixel 
           310  timing generator 
           315  analog-to-digital converter 
           320  integrated image processing 
           325  correlated double sampling (CDS) circuitry 
           400  digital camera

Technology Classification (CPC): 7