Patent 9264643 was granted and assigned to Rambus on February, 2016 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Described is a multi-modal binary pixel sampling system incorporating a configurable sampler. The system includes an imaging pixel that outputs a series of reset and measurement values. The configurable sampler can extract image data from these values using correlated double sampling (CDS), non-correlated double sampling (NCDS), direct comparison sampling (DS), or a combination of these sampling modes. The configurable sampler is agile and may transition among modes during an exposure interval. Additional switches, storage elements, and reference nodes may be added to store additional measurements or calibration values.