Patent ID: 8792087

Claim:
A pixel structure for optical distance measurement, comprising: a semiconductor substrate; a photoactive region integrated on the substrate and arranged to charge carriers responsive to radiation incident on the photoactive region; a reference potential terminal for a reference potential acting as a charge carrier sink; a plurality of at least three evaluating capacities in the form of floating-diffusion regions which are arranged around the photoactive region so as to be laterally spaced apart from an edge of the photoactive region; a plurality of at least four transfer gates in the form of MOS capacitors configured to transport the charge carriers generated from the photoactive region, wherein at least three of the plurality of transfer gates are configured to transport the charge carriers generated from the photoactive region to a respective evaluating capacity; and a control circuit configured to cyclically drive, in each cycle: a first one of the at least three transfer gates during a first drive interval synchronized with a radiation pulse of a radiation source so that first charge carriers generated during the first drive interval can be transported from the photoactive region to a first evaluating capacity, a second one of the at least three transfer gates during a second drive interval synchronized with a radiation pulse of a radiation source which is outside first drive interval so that second charge carriers generated during the second drive interval can be transported from the photoactive region to a second evaluating capacity, a third one of the at least three transfer gates during a third drive interval outside the first and second drive intervals so that third charge carriers generated during the third drive interval can be transported from the photoactive region to a third evaluating capacity, and the other one of the four transfer gates during a time outside the first, second and third drive intervals to connect the photoactive region to the reference potential terminal, so that at least one of the plurality of the transfer gates is driven at every point in time during the cycle.