Abstract: A charge-coupled device image sensor includes (a) a two-dimensional array of pixels having a plurality of rows and columns, the two-dimensional array includes: (i) a plurality of gates arranged as a charge-coupled device; wherein the array further includes a plurality of charge-coupled devices that are arranged to be clocked by one or more common timing signals; (ii) a transition region, electrically connected to the array, having a first and second row of gates in which the second row is electrically mated into a plurality of first and second pairs of gates in which first pairs of gates are clocked by a first common timing signal and second pairs of gates are clocked by a second common timing signal; wherein the first row of gates are all clocked with a third common timing signal; and (b) a horizontal shift register adjacent the second row of gates for receiving charge from the second row of gates.

Abstract: An image sensor includes a plurality of pixels for converting incident photons into electrical charge; an overflow drain to draw off excess charge from at one or more of the pixels; a mechanism for summing charge from two or more of the pixels; a first network of resistive devices generating a first overflow drain voltage where at least one of the resistive devices has, in parallel, a fuse that can be opened in response to an external stimulus to provide the optimum overflow drain voltage for pixel anti-blooming protection and saturation signal level for when a plurality of pixels are summed together; and a second network of resistive devices connected to the first network of resistive devices generating a second overflow drain voltage where the second overflow drain voltage is a fraction of the first overflow drain voltage and the second overflow drain voltage provides the optimum overflow drain voltage for pixel anti-blooming and saturation signal level for when none or substantially none of the plurality o

Abstract: A method for reducing shutter latency while maintaining low dark current in the imager and minimizing energy consumption in a digital camera, the method including the steps of providing an imager operating in accumulation mode; and substantially continuous flushing of charges from the imager before capturing an exposure of an image with a time between vertical transfers greater than or equal to time between vertical transfers during normal image readout so that, if continuous flushing for a time necessary to readout substantially all rows of pixels has occurred, the exposure may be captured with substantially zero latency.

Abstract: A method for reducing shutter latency while maintaining low dark current in the imager and minimizing energy consumption in a digital camera, the method including the steps of providing an imager operating in accumulation mode; and substantially continuous flushing of charges from the imager before capturing an exposure of an image with a time between vertical transfers greater than or equal to time between vertical transfers during normal image readout so that, if continuous flushing for a time necessary to readout substantially all rows of pixels has occurred, the exposure may be captured with substantially zero latency.