Charge coupled device with plural taps interposed between phased clock

Claim 1

A charge coupled device comprising a substrate, an insulating layer on a surface of the substrate, a row of electrodes spaced apart parallel to one another on the insulating layer and including a plurality of clocking electrodes and at least one tapping electrode, said tapping electrode being laterally spaced from said clocking electrodes and being disposed on the insulating layer between a pair of said clocking electrodes, a source gate at one end of the row of electrodes and a drain gate at the other end of the row of electrodes, first voltage means for applying short clocking voltage pulses to the clocking electrodes, second voltage means for applying different voltage pulses long in comparison with the clocking pulses to the tapping electrode whereby depletion wells may be formed in the substrate under the electrodes, and means coupled to said tapping electrode for nondestructively sensing the quantity of charge in a depletion well under said tapping electrode as a packet of charge is transferred from the source gate to the drain gate in the depletion wells.