Panasonic Corporation

Izumi Shimizu

Keijirou Itakura

Toshiya Fujii

Ryoichi Nagayoshi

Tsuyoshi Hasuka

Shinji Yamamoto

Yoshiaki Kato

Kazuyuki Inokuma

Kunihiro Imamura

A drive unitsets a saturation amount in a read period in which charges generated in pixels are read to vertical CCDs to be lower in a combination mode than in an individual mode (see Vsub in count valuestoin FIG.). As a result, excess charges in the pixels are drained to an n-type substrate. The drive unitalso sets an accumulation period to be shorter in combination mode than in individual mode (see Vsub in each mode in FIG.).

Driving apparatus for driving an imaging device

A driving method is applied to a solid-state imaging apparatus having photoelectric conversion portions, transfer portion for reading out signal charges, and an excess charge draining portion for draining charges exceeding a saturation charge amount that is set by a reference voltage. One of driving modes is selected from a full pixel mode in which accumulated signal charges are detected individually for each pixel and a pixel mixing mode in which signal charges of a predetermined number of pixels are mixed to be detected. In the full pixel mode, the draining portion is supplied with the reference voltage having the same value during a charge accumulation period and a read transfer period for read transferring charges. In the pixel mixing mode, the draining portion is supplied with the reference voltage having a low level during the charge accumulation period and the reference voltage having a high level during the read transfer period. An appropriate driving for the pixel mixing mode can be performed by avoiding a limitation of a substrate voltage, without deteriorating the spectral characteristics, the sensitivity, nor the linearity.

Method for driving solid-state imaging apparatus and solid-state imaging apparatus

A solid state imaging device of the present invention comprises a solid state imaging element which includes a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements arranged in a matrix. In the solid state imaging device of the present invention, a pixel mixture unit area includes q pixels (q is a natural number equal to or greater than 2) in the first direction of the solid state imaging element and p pixels (p is a natural number equal to or greater than 2) in the second direction that crosses the first direction. The solid state imaging device includes: means for performing a first-field pixel addition process of adding together electric charges of a plurality of pixels included in the plurality of pixel mixture unit areas and a second-field pixel addition process of adding together the electric charges of the plurality of pixels included in the plurality of pixel mixture unit areas based on a combination of the pixel mixture unit areas which is different from that of the first-field pixel addition process; and means for alternately outputting signals of the electric charges obtained in the first-field pixel addition process and second-field pixel addition process as signals for interlaced scanning.

Solid state imaging device and driving method thereof

Growing community of inventors

Kyoto, Japan

Izumi Shimizu