Patents by Inventor Hyeon-June Kim
Hyeon-June Kim has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Patent number: 11871128Abstract: Disclosed is an image sensing device including a current supply circuit coupled between a supply terminal of a first voltage and a pair of output terminals, an input circuit coupled between the pair of output terminals and a common node, and suitable for receiving a pixel signal and a ramp signal, and a mirroring circuit coupled between the common node and a supply terminal of a second voltage, and suitable for compensating for an operating current, which flows between the common node and the supply terminal of the second voltage, based on a reference current when generating the operating current by mirroring the reference current.Type: GrantFiled: November 29, 2022Date of Patent: January 9, 2024Assignee: SK hynix Inc.Inventor: Hyeon June Kim
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Publication number: 20230096575Abstract: Disclosed is an image sensing device including a current supply circuit coupled between a supply terminal of a first voltage and a pair of output terminals, an input circuit coupled between the pair of output terminals and a common node, and suitable for receiving a pixel signal and a ramp signal, and a mirroring circuit coupled between the common node and a supply terminal of a second voltage, and suitable for compensating for an operating current, which flows between the common node and the supply terminal of the second voltage, based on a reference current when generating the operating current by mirroring the reference current.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 29, 2022Publication date: March 30, 2023Inventor: Hyeon June KIM
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Patent number: 11611336Abstract: A comparator may include: a comparison block suitable for comparing a ramp signal and a pixel signal, and outputting a comparison signal; a voltage adjusting block suitable for adjusting a clamping voltage; and an output voltage swing control block suitable for controlling an output voltage swing of the comparison block according to the clamping voltage from the voltage adjusting block.Type: GrantFiled: November 13, 2019Date of Patent: March 21, 2023Assignee: SK hynix Inc.Inventor: Hyeon-June Kim
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Patent number: 11539901Abstract: Disclosed is an image sensing device including a current supply circuit coupled between a supply terminal of a first voltage and a pair of output terminals, an input circuit coupled between the pair of output terminals and a common node, and suitable for receiving a pixel signal and a ramp signal, and a mirroring circuit coupled between the common node and a supply terminal of a second voltage, and suitable for compensating for an operating current, which flows between the common node and the supply terminal of the second voltage, based on a reference current when generating the operating current by mirroring the reference current.Type: GrantFiled: October 12, 2020Date of Patent: December 27, 2022Assignee: SK hynix Inc.Inventor: Hyeon June Kim
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Patent number: 11330214Abstract: A comparator is provided to comprise a comparison circuit including a first transistor configured to receive a ramp signal and a second transistor configured to receive a pixel signal, the comparison circuit configured to compare the ramp signal and the pixel signal and output a comparison signal at an output node, and an output swing control circuit including a third transistor coupled to the first transistor and the second transistor, and the output swing control circuit including a current path to decrease an amount of current flowing through the second transistor.Type: GrantFiled: December 16, 2019Date of Patent: May 10, 2022Assignee: SK hynix Inc.Inventor: Hyeon-June Kim
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Patent number: 11317048Abstract: An image sensing device is provided to comprise: an image sensing region including a first pixel and a second pixel that produce a first pixel signal and a second pixel signal, respectively, in response to reception of light incident on the image sensing region; and a signal processing circuit electrically coupled to the image sensing region and operable to convert the first pixel signal and the second pixel signal to a first digital output and a second digital output, respectively, the signal processing circuit including a first node configured to receive the first pixel signal and the second pixel signal and a second node configured to receive ramp signals used for conversion of the first pixel signal and the second pixel signal.Type: GrantFiled: October 18, 2019Date of Patent: April 26, 2022Assignee: SK hynix Inc.Inventor: Hyeon-June Kim
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Publication number: 20210329179Abstract: Disclosed is an image sensing device including a current supply circuit coupled between a supply terminal of a first voltage and a pair of output terminals, an input circuit coupled between the pair of output terminals and a common node, and suitable for receiving a pixel signal and a ramp signal, and a mirroring circuit coupled between the common node and a supply terminal of a second voltage, and suitable for compensating for an operating current, which flows between the common node and the supply terminal of the second voltage, based on a reference current when generating the operating current by mirroring the reference current.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 12, 2020Publication date: October 21, 2021Inventor: Hyeon June KIM
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Patent number: 11032505Abstract: Provided are devices having a device including a ramp signal generator which may comprise: a slope control circuit configured to generate a controllable analog reference voltage according to a digital setting code value to control a slope of a ramp signal; and at least one unit current cell configured to adjust the slope of the ramp signal by adjusting a current flowing through the at least one unit current cell according to the controllable analog reference voltage generated by the slope control circuit.Type: GrantFiled: December 13, 2018Date of Patent: June 8, 2021Assignee: SK hynix Inc.Inventors: Hyeon-June Kim, Hoe-Sam Jeong
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Patent number: 10965897Abstract: A comparison device includes a comparison block suitable for comparing a pixel signal with a ramp signal and outputting a comparison signal; a banding value generation block suitable for generating a banding value using a setting code value and an analog-digital conversion code value; and a control block suitable for controlling a current an input network of the comparison block according to the banding value outputted from the banding value generation block.Type: GrantFiled: December 13, 2018Date of Patent: March 30, 2021Assignee: SK hynix Inc.Inventor: Hyeon-June Kim
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Patent number: 10819935Abstract: Provided are devices having a ramp signal generator for adjusting a slope of a ramp signal by adjusting a current of a unit current circuit to adjust a step size. The ramp signal generator may include a unit current circuit including one or more current paths that allow a flow of an electrical current generated based on a ramp supply voltage, and a slope adjustment circuit configured to adjust a slope of a ramp signal by changing a current path of the electrical current flowing through the one or more current paths of the unit current circuit.Type: GrantFiled: December 13, 2018Date of Patent: October 27, 2020Assignee: SK hynix Inc.Inventors: Hyeon-June Kim, Hoe-Sam Jeong
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Patent number: 10805568Abstract: A ramp signal generation device may be provided to include a ramp signal generator including a plurality of local ramp signal generators, each local ramp signal generator structured to generate a local ramp signals having a local ramp range based on a control of an external control unit, an AC coupler coupled to the ramp signal generator to receive local ramp signals from the ramp signal generator, the AC couple structured to perform AC coupling on the received local ramp signals and generate AC-coupled ramp signals, and an integrator coupled to the AC coupler to receive the AC-coupled ramp signals and structured to integrate the AC-coupled ramp signals into a ramp signal having a full ramp range.Type: GrantFiled: December 13, 2018Date of Patent: October 13, 2020Assignee: SK hynix Inc.Inventor: Hyeon-June Kim
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Publication number: 20200304744Abstract: An image sensing device is provided to comprise: an image sensing region including a first pixel and a second pixel that produce a first pixel signal and a second pixel signal, respectively, in response to reception of light incident on the image sensing region; and a signal processing circuit electrically coupled to the image sensing region and operable to convert the first pixel signal and the second pixel signal to a first digital output and a second digital output, respectively, the signal processing circuit including a first node configured to receive the first pixel signal and the second pixel signal and a second node configured to receive ramp signals used for conversion of the first pixel signal and the second pixel signal.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 18, 2019Publication date: September 24, 2020Inventor: Hyeon-June Kim
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Publication number: 20200280693Abstract: A comparator is provided to comprise a comparison circuit including a first transistor configured to receive a ramp signal and a second transistor configured to receive a pixel signal, the comparison circuit configured to compare the ramp signal and the pixel signal and output a comparison signal at an output node, and an output swing control circuit including a third transistor coupled to the first transistor and the second transistor, and the output swing control circuit including a current path to decrease an amount of current flowing through the second transistor.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 16, 2019Publication date: September 3, 2020Inventor: Hyeon-June Kim
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Patent number: 10757356Abstract: Provided are a comparison device that may minimize an influence of banding noise by offsetting the banding noise, and a CMOS image sensor including the comparison device. The comparison device may include a comparison circuit configured to compare a pixel signal and a ramp signal with each other and output a comparison signal, a banding noise adjustment circuit coupled to the comparison circuit to adjust electrical characteristic values of the comparison circuit, a banding value generation circuit coupled to the banding noise adjustment circuit to provide the banding noise adjustment circuit with a banding value generated based on a setting code value, and a banding noise reduction circuit coupled to the banding noise adjustment circuit and configured to reduce the banding noise of the comparison circuit by adjusting electrical characteristic values of the comparison circuit.Type: GrantFiled: December 13, 2018Date of Patent: August 25, 2020Assignee: SK hynix Inc.Inventors: Hyeon-June Kim, Tae-Hoon Kim, Hyun-Mook Park
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Patent number: 10694134Abstract: A comparison device includes a comparison circuit including input ports to receive a pixel signal and a ramp signal, respectively, and structured to compare the pixel signal and the ramp signal to output a comparison signal; a sensing circuit coupled to the comparison circuit and structured to sense a common voltage variation amount from the comparison circuit, wherein the common voltage variation amount depends on the pixel signal such that the common voltage variation amount increases as the pixel signal increases; and a tail current control circuit coupled to the sensing circuit and structured to control a tail current amount of the comparison circuit based on the common voltage variation amount.Type: GrantFiled: December 13, 2018Date of Patent: June 23, 2020Assignee: SK hynix Inc.Inventors: Hyeon-June Kim, Hoe-Sam Jeong
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Patent number: 10687010Abstract: A comparison device includes a multi-step pixel signal generation circuit coupled to a pixel to receive a pixel signal and generate a multi-step pixel signal based on the pixel signal according to a multi-step trigger signal and a multi-step size control signal; a comparison circuit coupled to the multi-step pixel signal generation circuit to compare a ramp signal with the multi-step pixel signal and output a comparison signal; and a control circuit coupled to the multi-step pixel signal generation circuit and the comparison circuit to detect crossings of the multi-step pixel signal and the ramp signal based on the comparison signal from the comparison circuit and output the multi-step size control signal to the multi-step pixel signal generation circuit.Type: GrantFiled: December 12, 2018Date of Patent: June 16, 2020Assignee: SK hynix Inc.Inventors: Hyeon-June Kim, Min-Kyu Kim
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Patent number: 10681297Abstract: A comparison device includes an offset generation circuit that includes an input port to receive an offset control signal and is structured to generate an offset based on the received offset control signal; a comparison circuit comprising a first input port coupled to the offset generation circuit to receive a first input signal and a second input port coupled to receive a second input signal that is offset by the offset generated by the offset generation circuit and operable to compare the first input signal with the second input signal to produce a comparison signal; and a control circuit coupled to the comparison circuit to receive the comparison signal and operable to detect a crossing of the first input signal and the second input signal according to the comparison signal circuit and to output the offset control signal to the offset generation circuit.Type: GrantFiled: October 8, 2018Date of Patent: June 9, 2020Assignee: SK hynix Inc.Inventors: Hyeon-June Kim, Min-Kyu Kim
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Publication number: 20200162067Abstract: A comparator may include: a comparison block suitable for comparing a ramp signal and a pixel signal, and outputting a comparison signal; a voltage adjusting block suitable for adjusting a clamping voltage; and an output voltage swing control block suitable for controlling an output voltage swing of the comparison block according to the clamping voltage from the voltage adjusting block.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 13, 2019Publication date: May 21, 2020Inventor: Hyeon-June Kim
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Patent number: 10574919Abstract: An ADC includes: a ramp signal selector suitable for selecting a ramp signal selector suitable for selecting a rising half ramp signal or falling half ramp signal according to a ramping direction detection result from a ramping direction detector; a comparator suitable for outputting an initial comparison result signal by initially comparing a half ramp signal and a pixel signal, and outputting a comparison result signal by comparing the rising or falling half ramp signal selected through the ramp signal selector to the pixel signal; the ramping direction detector suitable for detecting a ramping direction according to the initial comparison result signal from the comparator; and a data converter suitable for deciding an initial bit according to the initial comparison result signal from the comparator, and performing data conversion according to the comparison result signal from the comparator.Type: GrantFiled: June 11, 2018Date of Patent: February 25, 2020Assignee: SK hynix Inc.Inventor: Hyeon-June Kim
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Publication number: 20200036924Abstract: A ramp signal generation device may be provided to include a ramp signal generator including a plurality of local ramp signal generators, each local ramp signal generator structured to generate a local ramp signals having a local ramp range based on a control of an external control unit, an AC coupler coupled to the ramp signal generator to receive local ramp signals from the ramp signal generator, the AC couple structured to perform AC coupling on the received local ramp signals and generate AC-coupled ramp signals, and an integrator coupled to the AC coupler to receive the AC-coupled ramp signals and structured to integrate the AC-coupled ramp signals into a ramp signal having a full ramp range.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 13, 2018Publication date: January 30, 2020Inventor: Hyeon-June KIM