Integrated circuit, camera using the integrated circuit, and method for detecting incident light incident on an image sensor manufactured using the integrated circuit technology

摘要

A matrix array image sensor integrated circuit chip is provided including horizontal and vertical scanning means with the sensor cells within columns of the array being associated with an analogue charge sense amplifier. The analogue charge sense amplifier includes a first amplifier in the form of an inverting charge integrator which provides a preliminary detection of the charge accumulated in the sensing cell by integrating the charge to produce a voltage which is capacitively stored in a voltage storage means. The sensing cell may then be reset by control logic while it is isolated from the stored voltage which is in turn selectively sampled using a switch to read out through a second amplifier stage to be provided as an output from the integrated circuit chip. A method for operation of the device in processing an image read cycle is also provided.