A charge-coupled area image sensor and frame store

A two-dimensional three-phase charge-coupled array with 128 × 106 elements, that can serve either as a solid-state image sensor or as an analog serial memory, has been built. As an image sensor the device has been operated successfully in the frame transfer mode to yield 120 frames/s with 64 × 106 resolution elements. By using the whole array as an image sensor, pictures with 128 × 106 resolution elements have been obtained at 15 frames/s with tolerable smearing. In the memory mode the device can store a whole analog frame as produced by a companion device, or 13 568 bits of digital information. But for the latter application defect-free devices are mandatory. The design of the device, the various modes of operation, the quality of the results, some typical defects, and some further applications are discussed.