ELECTRON MULTIPLYING IMAGE SENSOR AND PIXEL READING ARRANGED IN A GROUP

摘要

The invention relates to image sensors allowing electronic images to be acquired at very low light levels. The image sensor comprises pixels that can be read individually or, for greater sensitivity, after the charges of four adjacent pixels have been grouped. Two photodiodes of a given column (PH21, PH22) may transfer their charges to a given multiplication gate (GM1), the two pixels of the adjacent column transferring their charges to a second multiplication gate (GM2). A phase of multiplication may be achieved by applying an alternation of potentials in phase opposition to the multiplication gates. Read structures each associated with one of the multiplication gates allow the charges of each of the four photodiodes or the grouped charges of the four photodiodes to be read.