ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,556,842, issued on Feb. 17, was assigned to Canon K.K. (Tokyo).
"Semiconductor device" was invented by Masahiro Kobayashi (Tokyo) and Yasuharu Ota (Tokyo).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The disclosed semiconductor device includes a region provided with a plurality of circuit blocks each including an avalanche photodiode. A part of the plurality of circuit blocks is a pixel circuit further including a first control circuit configured to control the avalanche photodiode to a standby state in which an avalanche multiplication is possible and a recharging state in which the avalanche photodiode is returned to a state in which the avalanche mu...