Patents Examined by Albert H Cutler
  • Patent number: 11545512
    Abstract: An image sensor package comprises: an image sensor chip configured to convert light collected from an outside thereof into an electrical signal; a package substrate disposed under the image sensor chip the package substrate configured to process the electrical signal converted from the image sensor chip; a glass substrate disposed over the image sensor chip while being spaced apart from the image sensor chip; a seal pattern disposed between an upper surface of the package substrate and a lower surface of the glass substrate while surrounding the image sensor chip; and a protection pattern disposed on the package substrate outside the seal pattern, the protection pattern comprising a single-component material, wherein the seal pattern comprises a material different from the material of the protection pattern.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2023
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Chajea Jo, Ohguk Kwon, Hyoeun Kim, Seunghoon Yeon
  • Patent number: 11539897
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for determining the exposure setting of an imaging device having a set of exposure parameters. A target luma of the imaging device may be determined. A correspondence table may be obtained. The correspondence table may relate to a plurality of reference luma values and a plurality of groups of operation values of the set of exposure parameters, a group of operation values corresponding to a reference luma value. A reference luma value and a group of operation values of the set of exposure parameters may be identified based on the target luma and the correspondence table. An adjustment of at least one exposure parameter of the imaging device may be determined based on the identified group of operation values. The at least one exposure parameter of the imaging device may be adjusted based on the determined adjustment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2022
    Assignee: ZHEJIANG DAHUA TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Erping Qu, Qianfeng Huang, Runfa Pan, Liangcheng Li
  • Patent number: 11532076
    Abstract: An image processing method, an electronic device and a storage medium. The method includes: under a preset condition, when detecting that an image currently captured by a camera module contains a human face, determining a reference photosensitivity corresponding to each frame of images to be captured according to a current jitter degree of the camera module; determining an exposure duration corresponding to each frame of images to be captured according to luminance of a current shooting scene, the reference photosensitivity corresponding to each frame of the images to be captured, and a preset mode of exposure compensation; capturing a plurality of frames of images in sequence according to the reference photosensitivity and the exposure duration corresponding to each frame of the images to be captured; and performing synthesis processing on the captured plurality of frames of images to generate a target image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2022
    Assignee: GUANGDONG OPPO MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP., LTD.
    Inventor: Yulu Wang
  • Patent number: 11527570
    Abstract: A charge-coupled device includes an array of insulated electrodes vertically penetrating into a semiconductor substrate. The array includes rows of alternated longitudinal and transverse electrodes. Each end of a longitudinal electrode of a row is opposite and separated from a portion of an adjacent transverse electrode of that row. Electric insulation walls extend parallel to one another and to the longitudinal electrodes. The insulation walls penetrate vertically into the substrate deeper than the longitudinal electrodes. At least two adjacent rows of electrodes are arranged between each two successive insulation walls.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2022
    Assignee: STMicroelectronics (Crolles 2) SAS
    Inventor: Francois Roy
  • Patent number: 11528404
    Abstract: An apparatus includes at least one processor programmed to perform operations of the following units: a focus detection unit configured to detect a defocus amount; and a control unit configured to control a focus lens to move based on the defocus amount, wherein the control unit includes three speed control patterns of acceleration control, constant speed control, and deceleration control, and the speed control patterns are changed based on at least two or more parameters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2022
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hideyasu Hongu, Makoto Yokozeki, Kazunori Ishii, Atsushi Kato
  • Patent number: 11528443
    Abstract: An imaging device 100 includes a pixel array PA. A first period, a third period, and a second period appear in this order in one frame. During the first period, pixel signal readout is performed on at least one first row in the pixel array PA. During the second period, pixel signal readout is performed on at least one second row in the pixel array PA. At least one of the at least one first row or the at least one second row includes two rows in the pixel array PA. During the third period, no pixel signal readout is performed on the rows in the pixel array PA. Each of the first period and the second period is one of the high-sensitivity exposure period and the low-sensitivity exposure period. The third period is the other of the high-sensitivity exposure period and the low-sensitivity exposure period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2022
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yusuke Okada, Takeyoshi Tokuhara, Yoshiaki Satou, Yasuo Miyake
  • Patent number: 11523082
    Abstract: An image sensor includes: a photoelectric conversion unit that photoelectrically converts light to generate an electric charge; a holding unit that holds the electric charge generated by the photoelectric conversion unit; an accumulation unit that accumulates the electric charge generated by the photoelectric conversion unit; a first transfer path that transfers the electric charge generated by the photoelectric conversion unit to the accumulation unit; and a second transfer path that transfers the electric charge generated by the photoelectric conversion unit to the accumulation unit via the holding unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2022
    Assignee: NIKON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ryoji Ando, Yoshiyuki Watanabe
  • Patent number: 11523078
    Abstract: Provided is a solid-state imaging device and an electronic apparatus capable of achieving both of a high dynamic range operation and an auto focus operation in a pixel configuration in which a plurality of unit pixels includes two or more subpixels. The solid-state imaging device includes a first pixel separation region that separates a plurality of unit pixels including two or more subpixels, a second pixel separation region that separates each of the plurality of unit pixels separated by the first pixel separation region and an overflow region that causes signal charges accumulated in the subpixels to overflow to at least one of adjacent subpixels, in which the overflow region is formed between a first subpixel and a second subpixel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2022
    Assignee: SONY SEMICONDUCTOR SOLUTIONS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hirofumi Yamashita, Shohei Shimada, Yusuke Otake, Yusuke Tanaka, Toshifumi Wakano
  • Patent number: 11523081
    Abstract: A solid-state imaging device includes a plurality of pixel cells, each of the pixel cells including a light receiving element, a floating diffusion, a first source follower circuit, and a second source follower circuit. The plurality of pixel cells are connected to an output signal line. The light receiving element photoelectrically converts incident light, and stores a signal charge. The floating diffusion converts the signal charge read out of the light receiving element into a signal voltage. The first source follower circuit is connected to the floating diffusion, and outputs an output voltage corresponding to the signal voltage. The second source follower circuit is connected in series with the first source follower circuit, and outputs a pixel signal corresponding to the output voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2022
    Assignees: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA, TOSHIBA ELECTRONIC DEVICES & STORAGE CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hisayuki Taruki
  • Patent number: 11516419
    Abstract: An event driven pixel includes a photodiode configured to photogenerate charge in response to incident light received from an external scene. A photocurrent to voltage converter is coupled to the photodiode to convert photocurrent generated by the photodiode to a voltage. A filter amplifier is coupled to the photocurrent to voltage converter to generate a filtered and amplified signal in response to the voltage received from the photocurrent to voltage converter. A threshold comparison stage is coupled to the filter amplifier to compare the filtered and amplified signal received from the filter amplifier with thresholds to asynchronously detect events in the external scene in response to the incident light. A digital time stamp generator is coupled to asynchronously generate a digital time stamp in response to the events asynchronously detected in the external scene by the threshold comparison stage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2022
    Assignee: OmniVision Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Tiejun Dai, Shoushun Chen, Zhe Gao
  • Patent number: 11509840
    Abstract: The present technology relates to a solid-state imaging device, a signal processing chip, and an electronic apparatus that make it possible to utilize the result of detecting an occurrence of an event in imaging. The solid-state imaging device includes: an event detection unit that detects, as an event, a change in an electrical signal generated by each pixel of a pixel array unit; a region-of-interest detection unit that detects, from a result of detecting the event, a region-of-interest of the pixel array unit; and a pixel signal generation unit that generates a pixel signal constituting an image of a region corresponding to the region-of-interest. The present technology is applicable to, for example, a sensor that detects an event that is a change in an electrical signal of a pixel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2022
    Assignee: Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation
    Inventor: Hayato Wakabayashi
  • Patent number: 11503240
    Abstract: Provided is a solid-state image pickup element that amplifies the difference between respective signals of a pair of pixels and enables a reduction in the number of wiring lines. The solid-state image pickup element includes an electric-charge accumulation unit, a reference reset transistor, and a readout reset transistor. The electric-charge accumulation unit accumulates electric charge transferred from a photoelectric conversion unit and generates signal voltage corresponding to the amount of the electric charge. The reference reset transistor supplies predetermined reset voltage to the electric-charge accumulation unit in a case of generating predetermined reference voltage. The readout reset transistor supplies voltage different from the reset voltage to the electric-charge accumulation unit in a case of reading out the signal voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation
    Inventor: Mamoru Sato
  • Patent number: 11495550
    Abstract: To generate a value unique to a device in a more preferable mode. A solid-state image sensor includes a plurality of unit pixels disposed in a two-dimensional array, and a drive control unit that controls a first drive to output signals from the unit pixels included in a first unit pixel group of the plurality of unit pixels as an image signal, and a second drive to detect variations in respective signals from two or more of the unit pixels included in a second unit pixel group of the plurality of unit pixels, in which the first unit pixel group and the second unit pixel group have different structures from each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation
    Inventors: Marie Toyoshima, Taishin Yoshida
  • Patent number: 11495629
    Abstract: A photoelectric conversion apparatus is provided. The apparatus comprises a pixel region in which a plurality of pixels each including a photoelectric conversion portion and a charge holding portion formed in a substrate are arranged, and a peripheral region. Above the substrate, an electrically conductive layer including an electrode pattern for transferring charges in the photoelectric conversion portion to the charge holding portion, a wiring layer including a wiring pattern electrically connected to the electrode pattern, an interlayer film arranged between the wiring layer and the substrate, a metal layer arranged between the interlayer film and the substrate and arranged so as to cover at least the charge holding portion and the electrode pattern are provided. In the peripheral region, the metal layer covers at least an upper surface of an electrically conductive pattern included in the electrically conductive layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kenji Togo, Sakae Hashimoto
  • Patent number: 11490044
    Abstract: There is provided an imaging element including: a photoelectric conversion unit formed by stacking a first electrode 21, a photoelectric conversion layer, and a second electrode, in which the photoelectric conversion unit further includes a charge storage electrode 24 that has an opposite region 24a opposite to the first electrode 21 via an insulating layer 82, and a transfer control electrode 25 that is opposite to the first electrode 21 and the charge storage electrode 24 via the insulating layer 82, and the photoelectric conversion layer is disposed above at least the charge storage electrode 24 via the insulating layer 82.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2022
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yusuke Sato, Fumihiko Koga
  • Patent number: 11483537
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are devices and methods for generating stereoscopic views of the eye (or any desired anatomic structure) using a dual-camera portable computing device. The locations of the two cameras are fixed, and the camera lenses may have different focal lengths. For example, the focal length of the second camera lens may be longer than the focal length of the first camera lens. One variation of a detachable imaging system comprises an objective lens and a relay lens that are disposed over the two cameras. The relay lens may be disposed over the first and second cameras, and have a focal length that is greater than the focal length of the first camera lens and less than or equal to the focal length of the second camera lens.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2022
    Assignee: Spect Inc.
    Inventors: Sachin Kalarn, Ankur Sudhir Gupta
  • Patent number: 11482558
    Abstract: An imaging device having a pixel including: a photoelectric converter that generates an electric signal through photoelectric conversion of incident light; a first transistor that has a gate coupled to the photoelectric converter and that amplifies the electric signal; and a second transistor that has a gate coupled to the photoelectric converter, one of a source and a drain of the second transistor being coupled to the photoelectric converter. The imaging device further includes a voltage supply circuit configured to supply two or more different voltages to the other of the source and the drain of the second transistor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2022
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kazuko Nishimura, Yutaka Abe, Masashi Murakami, Yoshiyuki Matsunaga
  • Patent number: 11483498
    Abstract: A solid imaging element (11a) according to an embodiment includes: a light reception element (402) that outputs an electric signal in accordance with incident light, a detection unit (30) that detects whether a change quantity of the electric signal output from the light reception element has exceeded a threshold, and outputs a detection signal expressing a detection result of the detection, a temperature measurement unit (51) that measures temperature, and a setting unit (52) that sets the threshold on the basis of the temperature measured by the temperature measurement unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2022
    Assignee: SONY SEMICONDUCTOR SOLUTIONS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Koji Ogawa
  • Patent number: 11476372
    Abstract: A method of building a moving average histogram of photon times of arrival includes, for each time interval in first and second subsets of time intervals, latching a time reference corresponding to a time of receipt of an avalanche timing output signal of a single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD), and advancing a count stored at a memory address corresponding to the latched time reference. The memory address corresponds to a range of time references. The method further includes reading and clearing a first set of counts after the first subset of time intervals; phase-shifting the sequence of time references with respect to a set of memory addresses after the first subset of time intervals; reading and clearing a second set of counts after the second subset of time intervals; and building the moving average histogram using at least the first and second sets of counts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Shingo Mandai, Cristiano L. Niclass, Moshe Laifenfeld, Or Nahir, Vyshakh Sanjeev
  • Patent number: 11477406
    Abstract: An imaging device according to the present disclosure includes a plurality of pixel units each including a first pixel unit and a second pixel unit and a vertical signal line, in which each of the first pixel unit and the second pixel unit includes an amplification transistor, a selection transistor connected between the amplification transistor and the vertical signal line, and a connection unit that selectively connects between a common connection node of the amplification transistor and the selection transistor of the first pixel unit and a common connection node of the amplification transistor and the selection transistor of the second pixel unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: SONY SEMICONDUCTOR SOLUTIONS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tatsuji Ashitani, Yukiyasu Tatsuzawa