Verbessertes Photozellenlayout für schnelle Mikrochips für die optische Navigation und Verfahren zur Anordnung eines Arrays von Photoelementen

• Main Author: KNEE, DEREK L
• Format: Patent
• Language: German
• Published: 07.08.2003
• Edition: 6
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; COLORIMETRY; ELECTRIC SOLID STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; MEASUREMENT OF INTENSITY, VELOCITY, SPECTRAL CONTENT,POLARISATION, PHASE OR PULSE CHARACTERISTICS OF INFRA-RED,VISIBLE OR ULTRA-VIOLET LIGHT; MEASURING; PHYSICS; RADIATION PYROMETRY; SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; TESTING

Circuitry is employed to provide an array of photoelements for generating an electrical signal from light energy. The circuit is essentially comprised of a plurality of photoelements including a light-receiving portion, which may include a phototransistor for receiving light and generating electrical energy therefrom, and a non-light-receiving portion, which may include amplification circuitry for properly biasing the phototransistor base and for amplifying the light signal. Within the array, geometric centers of vertically and horizontally adjacent phototransistors are equidistant from one another to form a symmetrical array of photoelements. A relatively high fill factor is achieved by an efficient, symmetrical layout of the photoelements within the array. One main advantage of the high fill factor of the symmetrical array is that it generates a greater light signal than related designs, which eliminates the need for optical magnification of pixels on an original sheet of paper. Additionally, the advantage of the symmetrical array is that the subsequent signal processing of the image captured by the photoreceiving array is not required to correct for unequal distances between geometric centers of adjacent phototransistors.