Image sensors with multi-functional pixel clusters

• Main Author: Boettiger, Ulrich
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 17.04.2018
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; COLORIMETRY; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; 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; PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION; RADIATION PYROMETRY; SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; TESTING

An imaging system may include several different types of pixels that are each configured to detect different characteristics of light received at the imaging system. An imaging system may include image sensing pixels that detect the wavelength and intensity of the light, direction sensing pixels that detect the directionality of the light, polarization sensing pixels that detect a polarization state of the light, and diffractive wavelength separation pixels that detect multiple different wavelength components of the light. One or more pixels of the different types may be arranged in a pixel cluster. A pixel cluster that includes different pixel types may detect spatially correlated information for multiple characteristics of the light. Multiple pixel clusters may be arranged in a pixel array that generates an image based on spatially correlated information for the different characteristics of the light.