1956results about "Amplifiers controlled by light" patented technology

A power supply rail controller operates on an analog component having a signal input, a power input and a signal output. A voltage controller provides a control output responsive to the signal output. A power supply generates a voltage for the power input, where the voltage is responsive to the control output. The voltage is reduced in magnitude to reduce power dissipation and increased in magnitude to avoid signal distortion.

According to an image sensor disclosed, a pixel circuit includes a photo-diode 14 for generating a photo-electric conversion voltage which corresponds to an input optical level, a transistor 11 which is activated in response to a Reset signal RST, to initialize the photo-diode 14 from a power supply VDD, a transistor 12 which, when connected between the power supply VDD and a bit line BL, amplifies a photo-electric conversion voltage and outputs it onto the bit line BL, and a transistor 13 which is activated by a word-line readout control signal WL, to interconnect the transistor 12 and the bit line BL, in which the transistor 11 is of a depletion type.

An active pixel sensor (APS) image sensor comprises an array of pixel circuits corresponding to rows and columns of pixels, a plurality of amplifiers that buffer signals output by the array of pixel circuits, and a plurality of sample and hold circuits that read the buffered signals. A routing mechanism is positioned between the array of pixel circuits and the plurality of amplifiers. A controller selects a set of the pixel circuits for sampling and is configured to control the routing mechanism to couple each pixel circuit in the set to a different one of the amplifiers during a normal mode of operation and to couple each pixel circuit of a subset of pixel circuits in a first set of pixel circuits to a different amplifier of a first subset of the amplifiers, to couple each pixel circuit of a subset of pixel circuits in a second set of pixel circuits to a different amplifier of a second subset of the amplifiers, and to connect the amplifiers of the first and second subsets of amplifiers in pairs to a common one of the sample and hold circuits during a sub-sampling mode of operation.

A switchable bandwidth optical receiver is implemented in a front-end of the receiver in at least one of three ways. A switchable impedance may be provided at the input to a preamplifier of the front end, the preamplifier of the front-end may have a switchable impedance therein, and/or a switchable filter may be provided at an output of the preamplifier.

An organic photoelectric conversion device comprising; a lower electrode; an organic layer; and an upper electrode provided in this order, in which at least one of the lower electrode and the upper electrode is a transparent electrode and an electron is collected in a side of one of the lower electrode and the upper electrode and a hole is collected in a side of other of the lower electrode and the upper electrode so as to read out photocurrent, wherein the electrode in the side of collecting an electron is the transparent electrode and has a word function of 4.5 eV or less.

A photoelectric conversion device includes a light detection circuit which includes an optical sensor to output a current signal corresponding to illuminance and a current-voltage conversion circuit to convert the current signal output from the optical sensor into a voltage signal; an amplifier to amplify the voltage signal output from the light detection circuit; a comparison circuit to compare voltage output from the amplifier and reference voltage and output the result to a control circuit; and the control circuit to determine an illuminance range to be detected depending on the output from the comparison circuit and output a control signal to the light detection circuit. The current-voltage conversion circuit has a function of changing a resistance value in accordance with the control signal.

An optical fiber radio transmission system is provided which is capable of considerably improving the received dynamic range of radio signals and, in addition, is capable of optically transmitting radio signals while preventing the deterioration of transmission performance and the loss of linearity of an input signal more easily. A received level detection section 111 detects which one of predetermined levels, i.e., Level I, Level II, and Level III, the received level of a radio signal received by an antenna 400 falls under. A signal control section 112 performs an amplification/attenuation process on the radio signal in accordance with the detected level. A control information sending section 113 superimposes control information indicating the detected level on a primary signal obtained after the amplification/attenuation process. This signal is converted to an optical signal and transmitted. An optical to electrical conversion section 211 converts the optical signal received from a transmitting unit to an electrical signal. A control information extraction section 212 extracts the level from the control information, which has been superimposed on the primary signal. A signal control section 213 performs an amplification/attenuation process on the primary signal in accordance with the extracted level.

A method is disclosed for obtaining a read-out signal of a MOS-based pixel structure having at least a photosensitive element with an output node and a memory element with a first switch therebetween. The method comprises the steps of while acquiring charge carriers on said output node of said photosensitive element, said charge carriers being converted from electromagnetic radiation on the photosensitive element, after a first time period creating a first signal, and after a second time period, creating a second signal, said read-out signal being a combination of at least said first and said second signals. According to the present invention, there is no limitation to the amount of collected charges in none of the integrated periods. The signal collected during the first period is memorized by a switch which shortly opens and closes between the period. The switch is thus in the same state in both period of time. After a second period, there are thus two charge packets, each obtained during a different time. In order to read-out, these two charge packets are then combined into one reading. This combination is known either by adding or subtracting this charge packets, e.g., by adding or subtracting them in the circuitry external to the sensor.

A method is provided for correcting a quadrature angle error that exists in the coherent receiver hardware of a dual-polarization optical transport system. The receiver hardware that causes the quadrature angle error is a 90 degree optical hybrid mixing device. The method involves generating an estimate of the quadrature angle error and compensating for the quadrature angle error by multiplying the first and second detected baseband signals by coefficients that are a function of the estimate of the quadrature angle error. The method is robust to severe channel distortion encountered within an optical fiber transmission channel as well as temperature effects and ageing of the 90 degree optical hybrid. The method is suited for a digital signal processing implementation in the coherent receiver when a modulation scheme used on a transmitted signal is quadriphase-shift keying (QPSK). In other embodiments, the method can be used to correct for quadrature angle error in modulation schemes such as binary PSK, M-ary PSK where M>4, or Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM). The method can be implemented by an application-specific integrated circuit(ASIC).

The object of the present invention is to miniaturize the area occupied by the element and to integrate a plenty of elements in a limited area so that the sensor element can have higher output and smaller size. In the present invention, higher output and miniaturization are achieved by uniting a sensor element using an amorphous semiconductor film (typically an amorphous silicon film) and an output amplifier circuit including a TFT with a semiconductor film having a crystal structure (typically a poly-crystalline silicon film) used as an active layer over a plastic film substrate that can resist the temperature in the process for mounting such as a solder reflow process. According to the present invention, the sensor element that can resist the bending stress can be obtained.

An assembly is provided that may be used in high data rate optical communications, such as free-space communication systems. The assembly may include a main optical receiver element and a lenslet array or other optical element disposed near the focal plane that collects an optical signal and focuses that signal as a series of optical signal portions onto a photodetector array, formed of a series of InGaAs photodiodes, for example. The electrical signals from the photodetectors may be amplified using high bandwidth transimpedance amplifiers connected to a summing amplifier or circuit that produces a summed electrical signal. Alternatively, the electrical signals may be summed initially and then amplified via a transimpedance amplifier. The assembly may be used in remote optical communication systems, including free-space laser communication environments, to convert optical signals up to or above 1 Gbit/s or higher data rates into electrical signals at 1 Gbit/s or higher data rates.

A method and a system for controlling at least one lighting arrangement (2), in which the lighting arrangement modulates the light (6, 16, 18) it emits by lighting arrangement data, which contains an identification code identifying the lighting arrangement, a user control device (12) is suitable to receive the light from the lighting arrangement and to derive therefrom the lighting arrangement data, the user control device measures a property of the received light, apart from it representing data, to provide additional data which is associated with the lighting arrangement which is associated with the identification code contained in the received data, the user control device transmits the lighting arrangement data and the additional data, and a main control device (10) is suitable to receive the data transmitted by the user control device and to therewith control the operation of the lighting arrangement.

A pixel comprises a photo-sensitive element for generating charges in response to incident radiation and a sense node. A transfer gate is positioned between the photo-sensitive element and the sense node for controlling transfer of charges to the sense node. A reset switch is connected to the sense node for resetting the sense node to a predetermined voltage. A first buffer amplifier has an input connected to the sense node. A sample stage is connected to the output of the first buffer amplifier and is operable to sample a value of the sense node. A second buffer amplifier has an input connected to the sample stage. Control circuitry operates the reset switch and causes the sample stage to sample the sense node while the photo-sensitive element is being exposed to radiation. An array of pixels is synchronously exposed to radiation. Sampled values for a first exposure period can be read while the photo-sensitive element is exposed for a second exposure period.

A reflected-light sensor includes a light emitter for emitting radiation onto an object to be measured and an optical receiver for receiving the reflected radiation from the object. The sensor includes a carrier for the light emitter and the optical receiver and a glass layer arranged on the carrier. The glass layer has transparent areas arranged above the light emitter and the optical receiver and light absorbing areas located in between.