Patent ID: 7436496

Claim:
A distance image sensor for projecting light from a light source to an object intermittently and measuring the distance by the delay time of the reflected light thereof, comprising: a photo-detector (PD) having a photo-diode structure buried in a semiconductor substrate for converting reflected light from an object into charges; a plurality of gate means (G 1 , G 2 ) having an MOS (Metal Oxide Semiconductor) structure on a semiconductor substrate; a plurality of charge storage nodes (C 1 , C 2 ); and control means ( 6 ) for controlling the switching of said gate means, wherein at least two of said charge storage nodes, that is a first charge storage node and a second charge storage node, charges from said photo-detector are alternately transferred and stored, synchronizing the light intermittent operation from said light source, by said gate means, that is a first gate means and a second gate means, so that the charge transfer efficiency from said photo-detector is improved and the distance to the object is determined using the distribution ratio of the stored charges.