CN102074565A - Concave-surface image sensor - Google Patents

Abstract

A concave surface image sensor has a semiconductor concave surface on a semiconductor substrate, and pixels are evenly arranged on the semiconductor concave surface, and the light reflected on the subject is imaged on the pixels through a convex lens or a pinhole. The pixel layout of the CMOS image sensor is adjusted, and the pixels originally arranged on the plane are changed to be arranged on the concave surface, so that the resolution of any part of the unit angle of the photographed scene is the same, and the multiple pictures taken are not out of place when editing. , the edited panorama picture is not out of place when viewed in the front, back, left, right, up and down directions, especially suitable for applications like Google Earth's street view view.

Description

A concave image sensor

Technical field

The invention relates to an image sensor, especially a CCD or CMOS sensor in which the pixels (photosensitive units) of the photographs that can be seamlessly connected into a panoramic picture are distributed on a concave semiconductor substrate.

Background technique

CCD image sensors and CMOS image sensors are widely used in digital cameras and digital cameras. The main difference between CCD and CMOS in manufacturing is that CCD is integrated on a semiconductor single crystal material, while CMOS is integrated on a semiconductor called a metal oxide. In terms of materials, there is no essential difference in the working principle. For the sake of simplicity, the CCD image sensor is mainly mentioned below. CCD is a semiconductor device that can convert optical images into digital signals. The tiny photosensitive substances implanted on the CCD are called pixels. The more pixels a CCD contains, the higher the picture resolution it provides. The CCD acts like a film, but it converts image pixels into digital signals. At present, CCD image sensors and CMOS image sensors The pixels are neatly arranged on a flat semiconductor, that is, each pixel is on the same plane, which makes the resolution of different parts of the photo taken slightly different, and the resolution of the middle part of the picture is slightly higher than that of the surrounding area. Higher, the higher the intermediate resolution, that is, the resolution of the image formed by the scene at a unit angle is different. If you browse a single picture, this difference is difficult to find with the naked eye, but when we edit multiple pictures into a panorama When taking pictures, this difference may be found, and the edited pictures will appear misaligned. Now many people like Google Earth. When you browse the street view of Google Earth, you will find that some panoramic pictures are misaligned, especially the resolution at the top. The rate is quite different from other parts, which greatly affects the image of the environment to be reproduced perfectly.

Contents of the invention

In order to overcome the defect that the resolution of the pictures taken by the existing CCD image sensor and the CMOS image sensor is slightly different, the present invention rearranges the pixel arrangement of the existing CCD image sensor and the CMOS image sensor, so that any part of the photograph taken The resolutions are the same, and the multiple pictures taken are not misplaced when edited. The edited panoramic pictures include front, back, left, right, up and down, which are natural to watch, and there will be no dislocation and different resolutions. Environment pictures are perfectly reproduced.

The technical solution adopted by the present invention to solve its technical problems is:

One side of the semiconductor substrate is processed into a concave surface, and the pixels are evenly arranged on the semiconductor on the concave surface. The difference from the existing CCD image sensor and CMOS image sensor is that the existing technology is to arrange the pixels on the semiconductor substrate with a plane, while The present invention arranges the pixels on a semiconductor substrate with a concave surface, and the light reflected by the object falls on the pixels arranged on the concave surface through a convex lens or a pinhole, which changes the CCD image sensor and CMOS image sensor in the prior art. The resolution of imaging on the sensor per unit angle is not the same.

Description of drawings

The present invention will be further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments.

Accompanying drawing is the principle schematic diagram of the present invention.

In the figure, 1. semiconductor substrate, 2. semiconductor concave surface, 3. pixel, 4. convex lens, 5. subject, 6. light path, 7. intersection point between the image of the subject and the pixel.

Detailed ways

In the embodiment of the accompanying drawings, we take the implementation of a concave image sensor as an example to further illustrate the present invention:

In the accompanying drawings, there is a semiconductor concave surface 2 on a semiconductor substrate 1, and pixels 3 are evenly distributed on the semiconductor concave surface 2, and the light reflected on the object 5 is focused on the intersection point between the object and the pixel by the convex lens 4 along the light path 6. 7, of course, the convex lens 4 can also be replaced by a pinhole. When the surface of the CCD is irradiated by light, each photosensitive unit, that is, the pixel 3, will reflect the charge on the component, and the signals generated by all photosensitive units are added together to form a For a complete picture, CCD can convert light into electric charge, and convert it into digital signal through analog-to-digital converter chip. After the digital signal is compressed, it will be saved by the flash memory or built-in hard disk card inside the camera, so the data can be easily transmitted. Give the computer, and with the help of computer processing, modify the image according to needs and imagination.

Because the present invention arranges the pixels 3 on the semiconductor substrate 1 with a concave surface, the light reflected by the subject 5 will fall on the pixels 3 arranged on the concave surface through the convex lens 4 or the pinhole, which changes the prior art. The CCD image sensor and the CMOS image sensor have different imaging resolutions per unit angle on the sensor.

Since the semiconductor substrate needs to arrange pixels on a concave surface, which is no longer a plane, the production process is slightly different. As for the material structure and size of the pixel and its detailed circuit structure, it can remain unchanged. These are already very mature technologies. No more details here.

Claims (1)

1. concave surface imageing sensor, it is characterized in that: pixel (3) is arranged on the semiconductor concave surface (2) of semiconductor chip (1) equably.