INTEGRATING CAPACITANCE CIRCUITRY FOR AN INTEGRATING AMPLIFIER AND RELATED METHOD

摘要

An integrating capacitor circuit (Figure 1C) for an integrating amplifier and related methods are disclosed that allow for efficient detection of currents or charges, particularly those produced by pixel cells in a detector image array. By placing a capacitor- connected field effect transistor (FET 120B) in parallel with an integration capacitor (120A) and setting its gate voltage to a selected voltage level, the current or charge from the detector depletes the charge on the gate of the FET capacitor (120B) while integrating on the capacitor (120A). In addition, the gate voltage level can be adjusted to modify the current depleting characteristics of the capacitor-connected FET (120B). The resulting operation of this integrating circuitry provides significant resulting advantages for the integrating amplifier.