Patent ID: 8553126

Claim:
An image sensor, comprising: a horizontal shift register electrically connected to a pixel array for receiving charge packets directly from the pixel array; a non-destructive sense node connected to an output of the horizontal shift register; a charge sensing output channel electrically connected to the non-destructive sense node and configured to output a signal corresponding to a size of each charge packet received at the non-destructive sense node; a charge directing switch electrically connected to the non-destructive sense node, the charge directing switch (i) comprising first and second outputs and (ii) being configured to direct charge packets, on a pixel-by-pixel basis, to the first output or the second output in response to the signal output by the charge sensing output channel; a charge multiplying horizontal shift register electrically connected to the first output of the charge directing switch; and a first amplifier electrically connected to the second output of the charge directing switch.