Invalidity dossier
US 7944493
Solid-state imaging device with specific contact arrangement
Current assignee: Collabo Innovations, Inc.
Added 9/16/2026, 6:46:41 PM
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Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US 7,944,493 B2
Title: Solid-state imaging device with specific contact arrangement
Patent number / application: US 7,944,493 B2; application US 12/715,884, filed 2010-03-02.
Assignee: Original assignee Panasonic Corp; current assignee listed as Collabo Innovations Inc.
Dates: Priority date 2003-03-07; publication date 2011-05-17. Legal status listed as "Expired - Fee Related," with anticipated expiration 2024-01-09.
Purpose: The invention "relates to a MOS-type solid-state imaging device to be used for various types of equipment, such as home video cameras, digital still cameras, or cameras incorporated in cellular phones." The described problem context is noise in pixel readout. In the conventional sensor of FIG. 9, each photosensitive cell (one pixel) includes a photodiode 51, a transfer gate 52, a floating diffusion layer section 53, an amplifier transistor 54, a reset transistor 55, and an address transistor 56. After reset, the amplifier transistor and a load transistor form a source follower circuit producing an output on a vertical signal line; voltages then appearing are "noise voltages irrespectively of signal electric charges stored in the photodiodes." After the transfer gates turn on, signal charges move to the floating diffusion layer sections, producing signal voltages on the vertical signal lines. Clamp capacitors, clamp transistors, sample/hold transistors, and sample/hold capacitors "form a noise suppression circuit."
Scope in plain language (as far as the excerpt shows): The patent concerns the layout/arrangement of elements—particularly contacts and wiring—in a MOS solid-state imaging pixel that reads out charge via a floating diffusion and amplifier transistor, with a noise suppression (correlated-type) readout circuit. The excerpt's own keyword list is: imaging device, amplifier transistor, floating diffusion, wire, transistor.
What the excerpt does not establish: It provides no full claim text, no complete description, no drawings, and no prior-art citations. The specific contact arrangement of the title and the actual claimed scope therefore cannot be stated from this text. Only a fragment of the noise-suppression description ("finds a di—") is present.
Generated 10/1/2026, 10:03:29 PM
Cases on file (1)
Group view →Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 7944493. The free-form analysis below may also discuss cases beyond this list.
Litigation summary
Past and pending lawsuits — plaintiffs, defendants, jurisdictions, outcomes, and notable rulings.
Proceedings on file (0)
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Current assignee: Collabo Innovations, Inc.
No PTAB proceedings on file. This patent has not been challenged via IPR, PGR, or CBM. The absence is itself a signal — well-asserted patents eventually attract IPRs. The LLM analysis below may surface filings the ODP feed hasn’t indexed yet.
PTAB challenges
AIA trial proceedings at the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board — IPR, PGR, and CBM. Petitioners, judge panels, claim-level invalidation outcomes from Final Written Decisions, and Federal Circuit appeals. The single most important defensive datapoint after litigation history.
Assignment history
Inventors, original assignee, and the chain of ownership recorded with the USPTO — including the correspondent attorney who recorded each assignment, since shell-LLC chains often share one repeat-player attorney even when the entity names look unrelated. Surfaces NPE / patent-troll patterns: shell-entity transfers, known asserters in the chain, repeat correspondent fingerprints, pre-litigation assignments, and bankruptcy fire-sales.
Prior art
Earlier patents, publications, and products that may anticipate or render the claims unpatentable.
Obviousness
Combinations of prior art that suggest the claimed invention would have been obvious under 35 U.S.C. § 103.
Extensions
Patent term adjustments, term extensions, continuations, divisionals, family members, and expiration dates.
Derivative works
Defensive disclosure: derivative variations of each claim designed to render future incremental improvements obvious or non-novel.
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This patent in court (1)
1 tracked lawsuit name US 7944493.