Image sensor defect identification using optical flare

摘要

Embodiments described herein may operate to compare an illuminance corresponding to a signal from an image sensor array (ISA) element in a production imaging system with an illuminance associated with optical flare incident to an ISA from which the ISA element is selected. The ISA element may be identified as unusable if the illuminance corresponding to the signal from the ISA element is less than the illuminance associated with the optical flare incident to the ISA.

主权项

1. An apparatus comprising:
an image sensor array (ISA) in an imaging system; an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) coupled to the ISA to digitize the signal from an ISA element of the ISA; a first module coupled to the ADC to perform a black level calibration on a digitized signal from the ISA element such that the digitized signal from the ISA element corresponds to a level of zero illuminance when no light is incident to the ISA element; a second module coupled to the ADC to normalize a digitized signal from the ISA element by removing at least one of a color cast introduced by illuminating a scene using light of a particular color temperature or a color cast introduced by a colored component of an optical flare incident to the ISA; defect comparator to perform a comparison to compare an illuminance corresponding to the signal from the ISA element with an illuminance associated with the optical flare; a defect location memory coupled to the defect comparator to tag the ISA element as unusable based on a result from the comparison; and a flare calibration memory coupled to the defect comparator, the flare calibration memory to store a flare calibration value, the flare calibration value corresponding to a magnitude of a signal from a calibration ISA element associated with a calibration imaging system, wherein the flare calibration value is representative of a level of the illuminance associated with the optical flare.