Blooming suppression in a CCD imaging device

Claim 1

A solid state pickup camera comprising a photosensitive target comprising: a semiconductor body having a surface; an electrically insulating layer partially covering the surface of the semiconductor body; a plurality of first clock electrodes present on said electrically insulating layer, said first clock electrodes defining, in portions of the semiconductor body beneath the first clock electrodes, a plurality of charge storage capacities in which, during operation, charge carriers of a first type which are generated locally in the semiconductor body by absorption of incident radiation can be stored and integrated for an integration period; a plurality of second clock electrodes present on said electrically insulating layer, one second clock electrode being arranged adjacent to each first clock electrode; a plurality of third clock electrodes present on said electrically insulating layer, one third clock electrode being arranged adjacent to each first clock electrode; means for applying alternating voltages to the first clock electrodes so as to alternately bring surface regions of the semiconductor body beneath the first clock electrodes into an inversion state and into an accumulation state, in the accumulation state excess charge carriers of the first type being collected in traps in the surface regions, in the inversion state trapped excess charge carriers of the first type being recombined with charge carriers of a second type opposite to the first type; means for applying voltages to the second clock electrodes so as to bring surface regions of the semiconductor body beneath the second clock electrodes into an inversion state in which charge carriers of the second type are stored below the second clock electrodes when the surface regions beneath the first clock electrodes are in the accumulation state, said charge carriers of the second type being transferred to the surface regions beneath the first clock electrodes when the surface regions beneath the first clock electrodes are in the inversion state; and means for applying voltages to the third clock electrodes so that charge carriers of the first type are transferred to and stored in surface regions of the semiconductor body beneath the third clock electrodes when the surface regions beneath the first clock electrodes are in an inversion state, and so that charge carriers of the first type are transferred back to the surface regions beneath the first clock electrodes when the surface regions beneath the first clock electrodes are in an accumulation state.