US Patent Issued to STMicroelectronics (Alps) on Sept. 29 for "Light sensor" (French Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,748,196, issued on Sept. 29, was assigned to STMicroelectronics (Alps) SAS (Grenoble, France).

"Light sensor" was invented by Xavier Branca (Sassenage, France).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A light sensor includes an integrated circuit chip and a boost DC/DC converter. The integrated circuit chip supports an array of pixels, each pixel including a SPAD. The boost DC/DC converter delivers to the SPADs a bias potential capable of placing the SPADs in Geiger mode. The boost DC/DC converter includes an inductive element, a first switch, a second switch, and a circuit for controlling on/off switching of the first switch. The inductive elemen...