Multicolor solid state imager with rotational swing drive.

PATENT STATUS: Granted. A color camera having good to-noise ratio and good resolution uses a single CCD image sensor chip with an optical color filter having a multiplicity of clusters of three circular areas, each of a different characteristic color, hexagonally arranged so as to form a multiplicity of horizontal rows each horizontally offset from the rows immediately above and below it by one-half the diameter of the circular areas. The circular areas have substantially the same diameter as the pixels of the CCD sensor. The camera includes mechanical apparatus for providing motion of the image with respect to the chip in a circle that is about one pixel in diameter, causing the image to rotate sequentially through the three different colored pixel fields of a cluster. Signals clocked out of the CCD sensor are processed to obtain R, G and B signals and low and high resolution luminance signals which are added to derive a final luminance signal.