Charge Coupled Devices

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Who invented Charge Coupled Devices?

Charge coupled device was invented by Willard Boyle and George Smith on October 17, 1969 at Bell Laboratories in USA.

When was the Charge Coupled Devices invented?

1969.

When the patent was granted on the Charge Coupled Devices?

Levine was granted a patent 3958210 for charged couple device systems on May 18, 1976.

Who was the patent granted to on the Charge Coupled Devices?

Levine.

What are Charge Coupled Devices?

• A charge-coupled device (CCD) is a device for the storage of electrical charge. It is a semiconductor that is sensitive to light and has  a 2D array of elements each of which is a capacitor.
• Charge coupled devices are digital imaging devices which have a couple of metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors used for storing charge in the capacitors. Charge coupled devices are charged when photons hit the semiconducting material and displace electrons. The charge depends on the intensity of the light that hits the semiconductor.  The charge is transferred from one capacitor to the next capacitor by the gate voltages.
• Transferring charge form one charge couple device to another charge couple device is known as frame storage array. And the result of transferring from one CCD to other CCD gives train of voltage pulses. The size of the voltage pulse is proportional to the stored charge and thus it is also proportional to the energy deposited by the event X-ray.
• Charge coupled devices are mainly used in photography, where CCD image sensors are found in almost all digital cameras and scanners. CCDs are also used in additional fields like electron microscopy, spectroscopy, and fluoroscopy because they can also be found in night vision equipment.