Image sensor with flexible interconnect capabilities

摘要

Electronic devices may include image sensors having configurable image sensor pixel interconnections. Image sensors may include image sensor pixels coupled to analog circuitry via configurable interconnect circuitry. The analog circuitry may include many analog circuit blocks. The analog circuit blocks may control and read out signals from associated image sensor pixels. The configurable interconnect circuitry may be controlled to reroute the connections between the analog circuit blocks and specific groups of image sensor pixels. Digital circuitry may be coupled to the analog circuitry via configurable interconnect circuitry. The digital circuitry may include digital circuit blocks. There may be significantly more image pixels controlled by a small number of analog circuit blocks, which are in turn controlled by a smaller number of digital circuit blocks. The image sensor pixel array, the configurable interconnect circuitry, the analog circuitry, and the digital circuitry may be vertically stacked.

主权项

1. An image sensor, comprising:
a plurality of groups of image sensor pixels; a plurality of control circuits operable to receive pixel output signals, wherein the control circuits are vertically stacked with respect to the image sensor pixels; and configurable interconnect circuitry interposed between the image sensor pixels and the control circuits, wherein the configurable interconnect circuitry is operable to selectively route the pixel output signals from a selected group of image sensor pixels to at least one of the control circuits, selectively route first control signals from a first one of the control circuits to at least a first portion of image sensor pixels in the selected group, and selectively route the pixel output signals from the first portion of image sensor pixels to the first control circuit.