Patent ID: 6952004

Claim:
An image sensor comprising: an array of light sensitive pixels, each pixel comprising a photosensitive element that develops a charge in response to incident light, a sense node, a transfer gate connected to said photosensitive element for transferring the charge to the sense node, a reset gate connected to the sense node, a read gate connected to said reset gate, a source follower connected to the sense node and said read gate, and forming part of an output amplifier, a gain capacitor connected between the sense node and said read gate for forming part of a feedback path across the output amplifier, said gain capacitor being controlled by said read and reset gates for resetting the pixel to a desired voltage, and said reset gate being connected across said gain capacitor and said read gate being connected in series with said gain capacitor so that when said reset and read gates are both closed, the output amplifier operates as a unity gain amplifier.