Wide-dynamic range image sensor and control method thereof

Abstract

The invention relates to the field of image sensors, and discloses a wide-dynamic range image sensor and a control method thereof. According to the invention, a plurality of photoreceptors and a plurality of transfer transistors are arranged in each pixel; in each integration period, the photoreceptors are sequentially connected with a floating diffusion area according to a preset time sequence respectively, the photoreceptors are sequentially read, and the other photoreceptors are integrated in the reading process of a certain photoreceptor, so that concurrent integration can shorten total operation time and increase the operating speed of the image sensor in a wide-dynamic range operating mode; and a structure with two layers of micro lenses is adopted, so that each photoreceptor in the same pixel can sample optical signals of the same point, and the optical signal detection accuracy of the image sensor is improved.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to the field of image sensors, in particular to high dynamic range image sensors. Background technique [0002] As we all know, an image sensor is a semiconductor device that converts an optical image into an electrical signal. Image sensors can be roughly classified into charge-coupled device (Charge-Coupled Device, “CCD” for short) and complementary metal oxide semiconductor (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor, “CMOS” for short) image sensors. [0003] Existing CMOS image sensors include CMOS digital-to-analog circuits and pixel unit circuit arrays. [0004] According to its readout method, existing CMOS image sensors can be roughly divided into passive pixel sensor (Passive Pixel Sensor, referred to as "PPS"), active pixel sensor (Active Pixel Sensor, referred to as "APS") and digital pixel sensor. There are three types of sensors (Digital Pixel Sensor, referred to as "DPS"). [0005] According to the number of transist...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0012] However, the inventors of the present invention have found that the existing technique of multiple shots with different exposure times requires a large amount of data, requires multiple images to be cached, requires a large number of storage units, and is limited in speed

At the same time, during multiple exposures, the scene must remain still, otherwise the quality of the synthesized image will be greatly reduced

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