diminishing signal region to determine the u201c effective signal level u201d to extend dynamic range the u201c effective reset integration time u201d for this behavior is simply elapsed time between the falling edge of the reset of the charge to voltage conversion node and the falling edge of the sample and hold of the reset level as shown in fig4 and fig6 the signal change in this small integration time can be ascertained by having two reset sequences that are sampled and held with different effective integration times if there is a difference between the two reset levels that exceed a predetermined threshold then it is known that pixel is in the diminishing signal region of the response curve this could also be done by comparing a single reset level to a reference reset level that is generated from a dark reset once it is determined that the pixel is in the diminishing region of the response curve the incident illumination level can be determined from the specific measured transfer function provided by the diminishing signal region of the sensor thus incident illumination levels from no illumination up to 50 000 u00d7 the saturation exposure can be detected by the sensor providing extended dynamic range additionally the effective signal level could be determined from the measured difference in the two reset level by using equation 7 v eff u03b4 ue89e ue89e v reset ue8a0 t exp t intr v sat equation 7 where t exp exposure time and t intr effective reset integration time application of the saturated region transfer function or calculation of the effective signal level as described in equation 7 could be accomplished outside of.