Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
The following title is suggested: Imaging Device for Non-destructive Charge Readout.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-7, 15 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Miyake et al. (US PGPUB 20220094873) in view of Hirota (US PGPUB 20180191973).
[Claim 1]
Miyake teaches a system comprising:
a light source that emits light to a subject (Paragraph 53, fig. 1, light source 200);
a photodetection element (fig. 2, photoelectric converter 10) that receives the light from the light source (Paragraph 54, The image processing circuit 170 receives, for example, command data, and a clock, or the like from the outside of the imaging device 100, and supplies a light emission timing signal, synchronized with the reading of a signal from the pixel Px, to the light source control apparatus 210. That is, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the light source 200 is configured to operate in synchronization with reading signals from a plurality of pixels Px); and
a light source control part (210) that controls a light emission timing of the light source (Paragraph 54), wherein the photodetection element includes:
a photoelectric conversion part (fig. 2, photoelectric converter 10) that generates by photoelectric conversion a charge pursuant to an amount of the received light (Paragraph 68, he counter electrode 13 is located on a side where light from the subject is incident); and
a charge accumulation part (gate electrode 22e of signal detection transistor 22, also known as FD) that accumulates the charge transferred by the transfer part (Paragraph 78, fig. 3, As with the conductive structure 52, the impurity region 111 formed in the semiconductor substrate 110, the pixel electrode 11 of the photoelectric converter 10, and the gate electrode 22e of the signal detection transistor 22 also function as part of a charge accumulation region for temporarily accumulating signal charges), and
the charge accumulated in the charge accumulation part is read at least twice or more nondestructively without being initialized, over a plurality of frames (Paragraphs 90-93, fig. 4, As for the 1st row R.sub.1 to the 5th row R.sub.5, the above-described exposure operation and the signal reading operation are sequentially performed on a row by row basis in a period from time t9 to time t14. When the reading of the first pixel signals for the 0th row R.sub.0 to the 5th row R.sub.5 is completed, the kth frame period ends (first readout). At this point of time, the second frame memory 174 is in a state in which image data corresponding to one frame of a digital signal is stored. Next, acquiring of image data of a (k+1)th frame period following the kth frame period is performed. In this acquisition process, the process of accumulation a signal charge in each pixel Px and the process of reading a signal are basically the same as those in the kth frame period (second readout). However, pixels Px are not reset between the kth frame period and the (k+1)th frame period. In the example shown in FIG. 4, for the case of the 0th row R.sub.0, the exposure period in the (k+1)th frame period starts at time t8. In this embodiment of the present disclosure, the resetting of pixels Px is not performed between the exposure period in the kth frame period and the following exposure period, that is, the exposure period in the (k+1)th frame period. Therefore, in the reading of the first pixel signal via the readout circuit 20, flowing of the signal charge out of the charge accumulation region and further flowing of the charge into the charge accumulation region basically do not occur. That is, the reading of the first pixel signal via the readout circuit 20 is performed nondestructively).
Miyake fails to teach a transfer part that transfers the charge generated by the photoelectric conversion part. However Hirota teaches he first transfer gate part 62 is provided between the first photoelectric converter 61 and the FD part 63 and the drive signal TGL is supplied to the gate electrode of the first transfer gate part 62. If the drive signal TGL becomes the high level, the first transfer gate part 62 is turned on and the charge accumulated in the first photoelectric converter 61 is transferred to the FD part 63 via the first transfer gate part 62 (Paragraph 59).
Therefore taking the combined teachings of Miyake and Hirota, it would be obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have been motivated to have a transfer part that transfers the charge generated by the photoelectric conversion part in order to decouple the photoelectric conversion element (charge integration node) from the sense node (floating diffusion) which significantly reduces noise (via Correlated Double Sampling), higher conversion gain, faster shutter speeds, and reduced image lag.
[Claim 2]
Miyake teaches wherein the photodetection element further includes a first initialization part (reset transistor 26) that initializes a charge in the photoelectric conversion part (Paragraph 82), and a plurality of the first initialization parts of all pixels each stop initializing a charge in a corresponding one of a plurality of the photoelectric conversion parts of all the pixels in a predetermined period, so that the photoelectric conversion parts substantially concurrently accumulate charges (Paragraph 84, fig. 4, In this example, pixels belonging to the 0th row R.sub.0 are reset and signals are read out from these pixels in a period from time t0 to time t1. Gates of reset transistors 26 in each row (fig. 2) are connected to a same address line which means they start and stop at the same time).
[Claim 3]
Miyake teaches wherein the light source control part controls the light emission timing of the light source such that the light source emits the light in the predetermined period (Paragraph 93, In the example shown in FIG. 4, the light source is in the on-state for a period from time t14 to time t16).
[Claim 4]
Hirota teaches wherein a plurality of the transfer parts each transfer the charge accumulated in a corresponding one of the plurality of the photoelectric conversion parts to a corresponding one of a plurality of the charge accumulation parts in the predetermined period (Paragraph 143, At a clock time t42, the vertical drive unit 22 turns on the drive signal TGL and turns on the first transfer gate part 62. Thereby, a charge obtained by photoelectric conversion in the first photoelectric converter 61 is transferred from the first photoelectric converter 61 to the FD part 63 via the first transfer gate part 62 and is accumulated. Same process will be repeated for plurality of pixels). Same motivation as claim 1.
[Claim 5]
Miyake teaches wherein the photodetection element further includes a read part that reads the charge accumulated in the charge accumulation part (Paragraph 63, A row signal line R.sub.i is connected to the gate of the address transistor 24. The row scanning circuit 130 switches the state of the address transistor 24 between the on-state and the off-state by controlling the voltage level applied to the row signal line R.sub.i. By performing this switching operation, the row scanning circuit 130 can read signals from the pixels Px belonging to the selected row to the corresponding output signal line), and the read part reads the charge accumulated in the charge accumulation part, nondestructively without initialization for every single pixel, nondestructively without initialization for every multiple pixels (Paragraph 92, In the example shown in FIG. 4, for the case of the 0th row R.sub.0, the exposure period in the (k+1)th frame period starts at time t8. In this embodiment of the present disclosure, the resetting of pixels Px is not performed between the exposure period in the kth frame period and the following exposure period, that is, the exposure period in the (k+1)th frame period. Therefore, in the reading of the first pixel signal via the readout circuit 20, flowing of the signal charge out of the charge accumulation region and further flowing of the charge into the charge accumulation region basically do not occur. That is, the reading of the first pixel signal via the readout circuit 20 is performed nondestructively) .
[Claim 6]
Hirota teaches wherein the photodetection element further includes a second initialization part that initializes the charge accumulated in the charge accumulation part over the plurality of frames (Paragraph 245, The anti-blooming gate part 121 is connected between the first photoelectric converter 61 and the power supply VDD and a drive signal AGL is supplied from the vertical drive unit 22 to the gate electrode of the anti-blooming gate part 121. When this drive signal AGL is turned on, the anti-blooming gate part 121 is turned on and a charge accumulated in the first photoelectric converter 61 is discharged via the anti-blooming gate part 121. That is, the potential of the first photoelectric converter 61 is reset to the level of the supply voltage VDD) in order to increase the charge accumulated in the photoelectric element by discharging the charge accumulated in the photoelectric part thereby extending the dynamic range.
[Claim 7]
Hirota teaches wherein in a plurality of pixels, a plurality of the second initialization parts each initialize a charge in a corresponding one of a plurality of the charge accumulation parts such that the charges are accumulated in the charge accumulation parts for substantially a same period of time (Paragraph 280, Moreover, at a clock time t149, the vertical drive unit 22 turns on the drive signal AGL to turn on the anti-blooming gate part 121 and reset the first photoelectric converter 61. By the above operations, emission of the flash high beam for ToF ranging and reception of reflected light of the flash high beam by the target object are carried out. These operations are carried out in all pixels 111 simultaneously) in order to increase the charge accumulated in the photoelectric element by discharging the charge accumulated in the photoelectric part thereby extending the dynamic range.
[Claim 15]
Hirota teaches wherein the photodetection element further includes an additional capacitance part that adds a capacitance to the charge accumulation part; and a switch part that switches addition of the capacitance by the additional capacitance part (Paragraph 152, At a clock time t52, the vertical drive unit 22 turns on the drive signal FDG to turn on the third transfer gate part 68 and electrically connect the FD part 63 and the node 81. Thereby, the FD part 63 and the node 81 are reset and Paragraph 182, In such a case, for example in the pixel 51 depicted in FIG. 2, the FD part 63 connected to the first photoelectric converter 61 with the intermediary of the first transfer gate part 62 can be used as a signal accumulating part that accumulates a charge obtained by exposure. Furthermore, if the capacitance of the FD part 63 is set low and the efficiency of conversion of the charge in the FD part 63 to an electrical signal is set high, even a subject that exists at a long distance on the vehicle front side can be efficiently recognized) in order to increase the dynamic range of the photoelectric element.
[Claim 16]
Miyake teaches wherein the light source emits infrared (IR) light (Paragraph 53).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8-14 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. The prior art fails to teach or suggest as recited in claim 8, “wherein in a case where the charge accumulated in the charge accumulation part is read nondestructively without being initialized for every single pixel, the second initialization part initializes the charge in the charge accumulation part for every single pixel, and in a case where charges accumulated in a plurality of the charge accumulation parts are read nondestructively without being initialized for every multiple pixels, a plurality of the second initialization parts each initialize the charge in a corresponding one of the plurality of the charge accumulation parts for every multiple pixels” and Claim 9, “wherein the charge accumulated in the charge accumulation part is read four times over the plurality of frames, a first read is performed during initialization of the charge in the charge accumulation part or after the initialization of the charge in the charge accumulation part, a second read after the first read is performed after a first frame in which no charge is accumulated in the photoelectric conversion part, a third read after the second read is performed after a second frame in which a charge is accumulated in the photoelectric conversion part and the light source emits no light, and a fourth read after the third read is performed after a third frame in which a charge is accumulated in the photoelectric conversion part and the light source emits light” and claim 11, “the photodetection element further includes a reference voltage generation part that generates a reference voltage for a read part that reads the charge accumulated in the charge accumulation part, before the read part reads the charge”. Claims 12-14 are dependent from claim 11. Addition of a reference generation part as in claim 11 would be hindsight and without any motivation to the primary art.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YOGESH K AGGARWAL whose telephone number is (571)272-7360. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9:30-6.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sinh Tran can be reached at 5712727564. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/YOGESH K AGGARWAL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2637