Reference clock-less CMOS image sensor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10175715-B2
Application number	US-201615272145-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 21, 2016
Priority date	Sep 21, 2016
Publication date	Jan 8, 2019
Grant date	Jan 8, 2019

Abstract

Apparatuses and methods for a reference clock-less CMOS image sensor are disclosed herein. An example apparatus may include a controller coupled to an image sensor via a serial bus, and the controller may provide an access burst to the image sensor over the serial bus, the access burst including a plurality of data signals and an associated clock signal, where the associated clock signal is a timing signal for the acquisition of bits of the plurality of data signals. The image sensor may calibrate an internal clock signal in response to a comparison of a number of cycles of the internal clock signal occurring during the access burst to a number of cycles of the associated clock signal occurring during the access burst, where the associated clock signal cycles at a first frequency and the internal clock signal cycles at a second frequency different than the first frequency.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An image system, comprising:
a serial bus including first and second bus lines;
a controller coupled to provide an access burst over the serial bus, the access burst including a plurality of data signals and an associated clock signal, wherein the plurality of data signals is provided on the first bus line and the associated clock signal is provided on the second bus line, and wherein the associated clock signal is a timing signal for the acquisition of bits of the plurality of data signals; and
an image sensor coupled to receive the plurality of data signals and associated clock signal over the serial bus, the image sensor further coupled to calibrate an internal clock signal in response to a comparison of a number of cycles of the internal clock signal occurring during the access burst to a number of cycles of the associated clock signal occurring during the access burst, wherein the associated clock signal cycles at a first frequency and the internal clock signal cycles at a second frequency different than the first frequency.

2. The image system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further coupled to provide a clock frequency indicator indicating a clock rate of the associated clock signal, and wherein the image sensor determines an effective frequency of the internal clock signal in response to the clock frequency indicator and the comparison of the number of cycles of the internal clock signal occurring during the access burst to the number of cycles of the associated clock signal occurring during the access burst.

3. The image system of claim 1 , wherein the image sensor further includes a serial bus interface coupled to the serial bus.

4. The image system of claim 1 , wherein the image sensor further includes a local oscillator coupled to receive the associated clock signal and further coupled to receive a clock frequency indicator from a serial bus interface of the image sensor, the clock frequency indicator indicating a clock rate of the associated clock signal.

5. The image system of claim 4 , wherein the local oscillator includes:
a register coupled to receive the clock frequency indicator;
an oscillator circuit coupled to provide the internal clock signal; and
a calibration circuit coupled to receive:
the clock frequency indicator from the register,
an enable signal from the serial bus interface,
the internal clock signal from the oscillator circuit, and the associated clock signal,
wherein the calibration circuit is coupled to provide feedback to the oscillator circuit to adjust a clock rate of the internal clock signal in response to the comparison of the number of cycles of the internal clock signal occurring during the access burst to the number of cycles of the associated clock signal occurring during the access burst.

6. The image system of claim 5 , wherein the local oscillator further includes a clock divider circuit coupled to receive the internal clock signal.

7. The image system of claim 1 , wherein the serial bus is inter-integrated circuit serial bus.

8. A method to calibrate an internal reference clock signal based on an unrelated clock signal, the method comprising:
Receiving, with an image sensor, an access burst over an inter-integrated circuit bus coupled to the image sensor, wherein the access burst includes a plurality of accumulation cycles and an associated clock signal, the associated clock signal providing timing information for the acquisition of data included in each of the plurality of accumulation cycles;
comparing a number of cycles of the associated clock signal that occurred during the plurality of accumulation cycles to a number of cycles of the internal reference clock signal that occurred during the plurality of accumulation cycles;
determining an effective frequency of the internal reference clock signal based on the comparison; and
generating, with a calibration circuit, a calibration code based on a difference between the effective frequency and a target frequency of the internal reference clock signal.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein determining an effective frequency of the internal reference clock signal based on the comparison is further based on a clock frequency indicator indicating a clock frequency of the associated clock signal.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising receiving a clock frequency indicator indicating a clock frequency of the associated clock signal.

11. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
counting the number of cycles of the associated clock signal that occurred during each of the plurality of accumulation cycles; and
counting the number of cycles of an internal reference clock signal that occurred during each of the plurality of accumulation cycles.

12. The method of claim 8 , further comprising providing the calibration code to an oscillator circuit generating the internal reference clock signal.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein receiving an access burst comprises receiving a plurality of access bursts, and wherein a new calibration code is generated after each of the plurality of access bursts.

14. An image sensor, comprising:
a plurality of photodiodes arranged into rows and columns to acquire image charge;
a serial bus interface coupled to a serial bus;
an oscillator circuit coupled to provide an internal reference clock signal; and
a calibration circuit coupled to the serial bus interface, the calibration circuit coupled to receive:
a serial bus clock signal from the serial bus,
an internal clock signal from the oscillator circuit, and
a clock frequency indicator from the serial bus interface,
wherein the calibration circuit is coupled to determine an effective frequency of the internal clock signal in response to a comparison of a number of cycles of the serial bus clock signal to a number of cycles of the internal clock signal that occur during receipt of an access burst, and
wherein the calibration circuit is coupled to provide a calibration code to the oscillator circuit in response to a difference between the effective frequency of the internal clock signal and a target frequency of the internal clock signal.

15. The image sensor of claim 14 , wherein the calibration circuit is further coupled to count a number of cycles of the serial bus clock signal occurring during the access burst, and further coupled to count a number of cycles of the internal reference clock signal occurring during the same access burst.

16. The image sensor of claim 14 , wherein the oscillator circuit is a digital controlled oscillator and is coupled to adjust a frequency of the internal reference clock based on the calibration code.

17. The image sensor of claim 14 , further comprising a register coupled to receive the clock frequency indicator from the serial bus interface, the clock frequency indicator indicating a frequency of the serial bus clock signal, and wherein the calibration unit is further coupled to determine the effective frequency of the internal clock signal in response to the clock frequency indicator.

18. The image sensor of claim 14 , further comprising a clock divider circuit coupled to receive the internal reference clock signal from the oscillator circuit.

19. The image sensor of claim 14 , wherein the serial bus is an inter-integrated circuit serial bus.

Assignees

• Omnivision Tech Inc

Inventors

• Wu Charles Qingle
• Yang Li
• Zhu Zhenhua

Classifications

• H04N25/76

  Addressed sensors, e.g. MOS or CMOS sensors · CPC title

• G06F13/4291

  using a clocked protocol · CPC title

• H04N5/374

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06F3/005

  Input arrangements through a video camera · CPC title

• G06F1/08 Primary

  Clock generators with changeable or programmable clock frequency · CPC title