D4 sensor derived from aptina technology

Several months ago there has been a discussion on the read noise and full well capacity of D4 sensor when the camera is release. Now Chipworks finishes their teardown report on the sensor. Even though its unaffordable to people outside the IC design field like us, they are still generous enough to provide a Topic of Content for free, which provide adequate information on the pixel structure of the sensor.

People has been speculating in that discussion on the discrepancy of base ISO in video and photographic mode, given a ISO200 in video. Now here's the definitive answer: D4 sensor seems to adopt the Aptina DR-Pix technology!

In the TOC, it has shown that 2 pixels share a single floating diffusion (FD) node, with 2 transfer gates, 1 reset, 1 source follower and 1 row select. But, there's an additional one called: Floating Diffusion Switch Transistor, which I interpret as the DCG in Aptina Dr-Pix technology. Basically when this is switched on, the FD would connect to a capacitor, allow more charged to be measured at the same voltage range. And as a result, FWC is increased and allow ISO 100 to hold more than 100k electrons.

Previous D3s and D3 used 4 transistor in a single pixel.