초록 ▼

A CCD imager having one or more serial output shift registers 16, wherein the dark reference area 10 prime at the edge of the image area 10 is located so that it will be clocked into the opposite end 16 prime of the serial shift register 16 from the output amplifier 18. After a line of image informa

A CCD imager having one or more serial output shift registers 16, wherein the dark reference area 10 prime at the edge of the image area 10 is located so that it will be clocked into the opposite end 16 prime of the serial shift register 16 from the output amplifier 18. After a line of image information is clocked through the output amplifier 18, the dark reference information is left in dummy pixel area 16 double prime. At the next line transfer, the dark reference information stored in the portion 16 double prime is the first clocked into the output amplifier 18, and thus provides the reference information. Standard TV formats have a limited amount of time available for horizontal blanking; this time limit, together with the CCD well clock rate, restricts the number of CCD wells which can separate the amplifier from the edge of the array. The present invention permits the amplifier to be located at a greater distance away from the array, because the clock cycles required for the dummy elements 16 double prime are used to load the dark reference information. This is particularly useful when the amplifier 18 is a correlated double sampling amplifier, or another amplifier which takes up a large amount of space.

대표청구항 ▼

An imager comprising: an image area comprising a plurality of columns of CCD elements, said image area also comprising a dark reference area comprising a further plurality of columns of CCD elements shielded from exposure to light: a storage area, comprising a plurality of columns of CCD elements sh

An imager comprising: an image area comprising a plurality of columns of CCD elements, said image area also comprising a dark reference area comprising a further plurality of columns of CCD elements shielded from exposure to light: a storage area, comprising a plurality of columns of CCD elements shielded from exposure to light, and further comprising: a CCD serial shift register, comprising means for receiving packets of charge from respective ones of said columns of CCD elements in said storage area, and a coadjacent chain of dummy elements adjacent to said amplifier, each dummy element in said coadjacent chain of dummy elements being a CCD element which is not connected to receive charge packets from any column of said storage area except by transfer through respective other elements in said shift register; and an amplifier connected to said serial register at the opposite end from the portion of said serial register which initially receives charge packets generated in said dark reference area from said storage area.