Color Filter Array with Transparent Pixels for Infrared Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional color filter arrays, such as the Bayer pattern, face limitations in improving image resolution and sensitivity, particularly in capturing color information and infrared light, due to their fixed pixel arrangements and lack of transparent pixels.
Innovation Solution
A color filter array design that incorporates a predetermined array of pixels, including transparent pixels and color pixels, arranged in a 2×2, 2×4, 4×2, or 4×4 configuration, with transparent pixels positioned in each row and column to enhance light sensitivity and capture primary colors, and optionally includes cyan, magenta, and yellow pixels, allowing for improved image resolution and sensitivity by detecting infrared light.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional color filter arrays (Bayer pattern) are used, then color information can be captured, but image resolution and sensitivity are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The color filter array is segmented into multiple types of pixels (color pixels and transparent pixels) arranged in specific patterns. Each pixel type serves a specific function: color pixels capture color information while transparent pixels capture infrared light. This segmentation allows the system to simultaneously capture both visible and infrared spectra without requiring a single complex pixel design, thereby improving image resolution and sensitivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The color filter array is designed with multi-functional pixels that can capture different types of light. Color pixels capture visible light for color imaging, while transparent pixels capture infrared light for additional spectral information. This multi-functionality allows a single sensor array to perform multiple imaging tasks, improving overall system sensitivity and resolution without requiring separate sensors for different spectral ranges.
2Reliability
If transparent pixels are added to improve sensitivity, then infrared light detection is enhanced, but the complexity of pixel arrangement increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of uniformly distributing all pixel types across the entire sensor array, the invention applies local quality by creating specific regions or patterns where transparent pixels are concentrated. For example, transparent pixels may be arranged in specific rows, columns, or clusters within the array. This localized approach enhances infrared detection sensitivity in critical areas while maintaining simpler arrangements in other regions, thereby improving light sensitivity without excessively increasing overall complexity.
3Measurement precision
If fixed pixel arrangements are used, then manufacturing is simplified, but image resolution improvement is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The invention employs asymmetric pixel arrangements where transparent pixels and color pixels are distributed in non-uniform patterns. For example, transparent pixels may be positioned specifically at corners, edges, or particular rows/columns rather than being evenly spaced. This asymmetric arrangement optimizes the capture of infrared light paths and improves image resolution by strategically placing sensitive pixels where they provide maximum benefit, while still maintaining a regular enough pattern to facilitate manufacturing processes.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The proposed color filter array design significantly enhances image resolution and sensitivity by incorporating transparent pixels in each row and column, enabling effective capture of primary colors and infrared light, leading to improved image quality and noise reduction through sub-channel signal processing.
Implementation Method 1
a color filter array refers to a mosaic of color filters placed on an image sensor which filter light by wavelength range to capture color information
Implementation Method 2
a second layer configured to: detect infrared light that passed through a transparent pixel of the color filter array, and generate an infrared signal corresponding to the detected infrared light
Data Source
AI summary
A color filter array and image obtaining apparatus are provided. The color filter array includes at least one unit cell having a predetermined array of pixels, and the predetermined array including the color pixels and transparent pixels. Each 2×2 array of pixels in the unit cell includes one transparent pixel and three color pixels and at least one transparent pixel is located in each row or in each column of the unit cell. The image obtaining apparatus generate an electrical image signal corresponding to sensed light that has passed through the color filter array.