Balanced regenerative charge detection circuit for semiconductor charge transfer devices

摘要

In order to use a flip-flop amplifier for regenerative sensing of the binary output stream of a many-stage main semiconductor charge transfer device section, an auxiliary semiconductor charge transfer device section of but a few or a single transfer stage is fabricated in close proximity of the output diode of the main semiconductor charge transfer device section. This auxiliary charge transfer device section is arranged to provide an output stream of unilevel charge packets which are midway between the binary charge levels of the output stream in the main semiconductor charge transfer device section. By means of preamplifiers which sense these output streams from the main and the auxiliary charge transfer device sections, a gated flip-flop detector can be fed by the preamplifier in such a way that the gated flip-flop detector flips into one or the other of its states depending upon whether the instantaneous level in the main charge transfer device section is greater or less than that of the auxiliary charge transfer device section. Thus, the output of the flip-flop amplifier is representative of the instantaneous binary level of information output of the main semiconductor charge transfer device, and this output of the flip-flop amplifier can then be fed to a buffer amplifier whose output is useful as input for further circulation in the main charge transfer device section.