METHOD FOR OPERATING A CMOS IMAGE SENSOR WITH INCREASED SENSITIVITY

摘要

There is disclosed a method for operating a CMOS image sensor including a plurality of pixels (50)each of the pixels including a photo-sensor element (PD)producing charge carriers in proportion to its illumination and storage means (C1)capable of being coupledand uncoupled from the photo-sensor element at a determined instant in order to store, on a memory node (B) of the pixel, a measuring signal representative of the charge carriers produced by saidphoto-sensor element.Each pixel includes at least first MOS transistor (M2)connected via its source and drain terminals respectively to the photo-sensor element and to the storage means. At least during the pixel exposure step, an intermediate level voltage (V)is applied to the gate terminal of the first transistor, said intermediate voltage being selected so that the charge carriers produced by the photo-sensor element are entirely transferred via the first transistor onto the storage means.