Abstract: In a high voltage ESD protection solution, a plurality of DIACs are connected together to define a cascaded structure with isolation regions provided to prevent n-well and p-well punch through. An p-ring surrounds the DIACs and provides a ground for the substrate in which the DIACs are formed.

Abstract: An image sensor is disclosed that contains pixel cells that can individually provide a photocharge that is proportional to the magnitude of incident radiation upon each pixel cell. The individual photocharges can be used to construct an electronic image. Additionally, the photocharges of groups of adjacent pixel cells of the image sensor can be combined such that the combined photocharge is proportional to the magnitude of incident radiation upon the group of adjacent pixel cells. The combined photocharge can be read by a converter such as a charge amplifier. The sensitivity of the image sensor is increased at the expense of resolution by iteratively grouping adjacent pixel cells and converting combined photocharges for each group of adjacent pixel cells. Increased sensitivity of the image sensor increases the signal-to-noise ratio of the image sensor in very low light conditions.