Abstract: A vertical color filter sensor group, formed on a substrate (preferably a semiconductor substrate) by a semiconductor integrated circuit fabrication process, and including at least two vertically stacked, photosensitive sensors. Other aspects of the invention are arrays of such vertical color filter sensor groups, and methods for fabricating such vertical color filter sensor groups and arrays thereof. In some embodiments, the sensor group is a block of solid material having a readout surface. At least two vertically stacked sensors are formed in the block and a trench contact is provided between one of the sensors and the readout surface.

Abstract: A method and system for establishing intensity levels for sub-pixels of a display device with overlapping logical pixels. The dithering system combines frame rate control techniques with contributions from overlapping pixels to establish the intensity level of each sub-pixel. The dithering system initially provides an assignment of frame numbers to each sub-pixel. The dithering system then receives a logical pixel color that includes an intensity value for each component color (e.g., red, green, and blue) for each logical pixel. The dithering system maps each component intensity value of each logical pixel to an intensity value with a low depth plus a remainder. The dithering system generates a sub-pixel intensity value for each sub-pixel of each logical pixel using frame rate control to adjust the intensity value of each sub-pixel based on the remainder and current frame number.

Abstract: Digital pixel data is transferred from a computer system to video display hardware in a forward direction. However, there are many reasons for digital pixel data to be transferred in both directions along a cable connecting a computer and a monitor. This invention describes a method of sending digital data from a monitor back to the computer in a reverse direction. In transmission of digital pixel data in a forward direction, there are horizontal and vertical blanking periods during which special characters are transmitted in order to resynchronize the digital pixel data to a clock signal. In such a system the transmission of these special characters only requires a portion of the blanking periods. During the remainder to the blanking period, some of or all of the data paths can be used in order to transmit digital data in a reverse direction. Where all data paths are used, the beginning and end of the usable portion of the blanking periods may last for a fixed number of clock cycles.

Abstract: A method for communicating between a processor and a video display monitor is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes transmitting digital pixel data from the processor to the video display monitor in a forward direction over two differential wire pairs, and transmitting auxiliary digital data from the processor to the video display monitor in a forward direction over the two differential wire pairs by manipulating the DC offsets in the two differential wire pairs thereby using the two differential wire pairs as a single differential pair.

Abstract: A jitter correction apparatus and method are disclosed. In one embodiment, the apparatus has a rising edge corrector to receive a jittered signal and to output a jitter corrected rising edge of the jittered signal. The apparatus may also have a falling edge corrector to receive the jittered signal and to output a jitter corrected falling edge of the jittered signal. The jitter correction apparatus may include an output device to receive the jitter corrected rising edge, to receive the jitter corrected falling edge, and to output a jitter corrected signal.

Abstract: A method for communicating between a processor and a video display monitor is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes transmitting digital pixel data from the processor to the video display monitor in a forward direction over two differential wire pairs, and transmitting auxiliary digital data from the processor to the video display monitor in a forward direction over the two differential wire pairs by manipulating the DC offsets in the two differential wire pairs thereby using the two differential wire pairs as a single differential pair.

Abstract: Data is transferred from a processor to a display in one direction. However, there are many reasons for data to be transferred in both directions along a cable connecting the processor and display. This invention describes a method of sending data from the display back to the processor computer in a situation in which the video data transferred to the display is in digital form. Differential wire pairs are used to transmit red, green and blue digital pixel data in a first direction from the processor to the display using a high common mode rejection ratio in each of the twisted wire differential pairs. Using this common mode, digital data may be serially transmitted in a reverse direction from the display. The common mode is offset between two of the twisted wire differential pairs by varying the DC offset or reference voltage in one of the twisted wire differential pairs relative to the other differential pair.

Abstract: An image or other multi-dimensional data set may have its sampling rate changed by determining weighting factors for the values of points in the original (input) data set used to calculate the value of a point in the new (output) data set. The weighting factors are determined using a function, such as a Gaussian function, that takes as input the relative location of the point in the new data set with respect to the locations of surrounding (neighboring) points in the original data set. The values of the points in the original data set are multiplied by the weighting factors, and the resultant products are added (or combined by another function) to give a value of the point in the new data set. In particular, when the input and output data sets are regularly spaced, such as with pixels for computer displays, the locations of the surrounding points and thus their weights repeat periodically.

Abstract: A display has sufficient resolution to present images as they would appear on other types of image output devices, such as types of printers or displays. In response to a user signal indicating a type of image output devices, data defining an image is used to automatically obtain version data defining a version of the image. The version can be presented on the display to show the image as it would appear when presented by an image output device of the indicated type. The user can indicate a type by selecting a menu item or a button or by providing a sequence of keystrokes. In response to a user signal indicating a parameter value, a version can be presented showing the image as it would appear when presented with the value. When a satisfactory image is displayed, the user can then request presentation of the image by a device of the indicated type.

Abstract: A pen input system and method is disclosed for identifying a cursor location on a high resolution display. A pen includes a pointer for pointing to a desired point on a display screen for positioning of the cursor. A low resolution locator generally localizes the point to which the pen is pointing at a first location in a host processor, through a cursor control, and positions the cursor at the first location. The pen includes an imager for viewing an image of a portion of the screen including the cursor and the desired point to which the pen is pointing. The host processor can determine a variance between the desired point, which is the center point of the image viewed by the imager in the pen and the actual cursor location. This variance is determined by the processor which then repositions the cursor at the desired point.

Abstract: An array includes first and second light active units with a difference in effective size that would be sufficient to produce an artifact in images if the first and second units were adjacent. Instead of being adjacent, the first and second units are separated by a spacing in which intermediate units form a series extending from the larger unit to the smaller unit. Every unit in the series has an effective size less than the preceding unit, but the size differences between adjacent units are insufficient to produce an artifact. The array can be a display, and the first and second units can be light control units in a column, with the difference in effective size resulting from paired lines adjacent the smaller unit. Spacings between lines bounding rows of light control units can be different, or rows can have nearly constant pitch but dark matrix can define aperture boundaries that have different effective sizes.

Abstract: An array of light control units has an area large enough to present images for direct viewing. The array also has light control units sufficiently dense that ordinary acuity artifacts are not noticeable in presented images when the array is directly viewed at usual viewing distances by a human with normal vision. Signal circuitry can provide signals to the light control units. The array can present an image that includes M colors, where M is more than three, even though each light control unit can only cause presentation of one of a segment with one of a set of N colors, where N is less than M. Data defining an input image with M colors are used to obtain data defining an output image that is a version of the input image but includes, for each light control unit, a color data item indicating one of its set of N colors. The signal circuitry provides signals to the light control units so that each light control unit presents a segment with the color indicated by its color data item.

Abstract: A mechanical capacitor includes a fixed electrode, a movable electrode separated from the fixed electrode by a gap, a spring attached to the movable electrode suspending it above the fixed electrode, opposing the fixed electrode and an insulator formed over either the fixed or the movable electrode in between the two electrodes. The movable electrode, the gap, the insulator and the fixed electrode form a mechanical capacitor. The capacitance of the mechanical capacitor is changed by applying a control voltage between the movable and the fixed electrodes. When a control voltage across the mechanical capacitor is increased, the movable electrode moves closer to the fixed electrode, which causes the mechanical capacitor capacitance to increase. When the control voltage across the mechanical capacitor is decreased, the movable electrode is moved farther away from the fixed electrode by the operation of the spring.

Abstract: A repair structure for an array with first and second sets of lines that cross includes a repair line extending within the array, approximately parallel to at least one line in the first set and crossing a subset of the lines in the second set. The repair line is separated from the lines it crosses by an insulating layer but a repair operation can form an electrical connection between the repair line and an open line it crosses by operating on the region where they cross. For example, the insulating layer can be melted so that molten metal from the lines mixes to form an electrical connection. The repair structure also includes a connecting lead outside the array through which the repair line can be electrically connected to the signal circuitry for the open line, so that the open line receives signals from or provides signals to its signal circuitry as though it were continuous.

Abstract: A thin-film structure on an insulating substrate includes an array of binary control units with an area of at least 90 cm.sup.2 and a density of at least 60 binary control units per cm. One implementation has an area of approximately 510 cm.sup.2, a diagonal of approximately 33 cm, and a total of approximately 6.3 million binary control units. Each binary control unit has a lead for receiving a unit drive signal, to which it responds by causing presentation of a segment of images presented by the array. Each binary control unit can present a segment with either a first color having a maximum intensity or a second color having a minimum intensity. Each binary control unit's unit drive signal causes the binary control unit to present its first and second colors. The substrate can be glass. Each binary control unit can include an amorphous silicon thin-film transistor (TFT) and a storage capacitor. Each binary control unit can be square.

Abstract: A depletion mode MOS transistor which can function like a constant current source, when its gate is connected to the source and its drain is held at a fixed voltage even above 40 volts. In addition to heavily doped source and drain regions and a lightly doped, gated channel region, all of one conductivity type, formed in a lightly doped substrate or region of the other conductivity type, the transistor includes thin, heavily doped fingers of the other polarity that extend outwardly from beneath the gate to the grounded barrier ring isolating the transistor from other devices in the substrate. The fingers eliminate the flow of parasitic source to drain currents normally existing between the sides of the gate electrode and the barrier, thus providing a depletion mode MOS transistor having an I.sub.SD vs. V.sub.S characteristic more like that of a constant current source when the gate is connected to the source.