Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Akito Kidera

Toshiya Fujii

Hiroyoshi Komobuchi

Takao Kuroda

Sei Suzuki

Yasuhiro Morinaka

A color filter arrangement () is used, in which a plurality of filter units are each made of 2&#xd7;2 arrangements of red (R), green (G), green (G) and blue (B) color elements. First, signal charges are added up for all pixels belonging to each of a plurality of pixel blocks made of quadratic arrangements of 3&#xd7;3 of pixels, which are larger than the filter units (2&#xd7;2 arrangement). Then, compressed color information for each of the pixel blocks is obtained from a result of the addition for each pixel block, taking the 2&#xd7;2 arrangements of pixel blocks as large filter units.

Image sensing apparatus and signal processing method therefor

In making solid state imaging devices smaller and increasing their number of pixels, it is desirable to increase the charge amount that can be handled per unit area of the transfer portions. It is possible to achieve this by making the insulating film thinner, but this leads to electric fields in the semiconductor substrate that are too strong, and causes problems such as the generation of noise and the deterioration of the transfer efficiency. This invention relaxes potential steps in the transfer region by applying, when a signal chargeis being read out (t=t), a high voltage to the electrodefor reading out the signal charge, a low voltage to at least one of the electrodesfor preventing unnecessary mixing of signal charges, and an intermediate voltage between the high voltage and the low voltage to the electrodesand, which are adjacent to the electrodeto which the high voltage is applied.

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Osaka, Japan

Akito Kidera