Dickstein Shapiro LLP
Method and apparatus for dark current and hot pixel reduction in active pixel image sensors
A method of operating an imager pixel that includes the act of applying a relatively small voltage on the gate of a transfer transistor during a charge acquisition period. If a small positive voltage is applied, a depletion region is created under the transfer transistor gate, which creates a path for dark current electrons to be transferred to a pixel floating diffusion region. The dark electrons are subsequently removed by a pixel reset operation. If a small negative voltage is applied to the transfer gate, electrons that would normally create dark current problems will instead recombine with holes thereby substantially reducing dark current.
Micron Technology, Inc.
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Xiangli Peter Parker Gennadiy Rick
Li Altice Agranov Mauritzson