Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

Nobuhiro Mitani

Toshihiro Furusawa

Yuji Kitamura

An insulating film O is formed on a semiconductor substrate S. On the insulating film O, first electrodes M.sub.1 are disposed in parallel and second electrodes M.sub.2 are also disposed in parallel. The first electrodes M.sub.1 are insulated from the second electrodes M.sub.2 and the first electrodes M.sub.1 and the second electrodes M.sub.2 are disposed such that one side of a first electrode M.sub.1 and one side of a second electrode M.sub.2 are adjacent to each other. On the surface regions of the semiconductor substrate S between the respective other sides of the first electrodes M.sub.1 and the second electrodes M.sub.2, high concentration regions S.sub.3 are formed using the first and second electrodes M.sub.1 and M.sub.2 as a mask without causing deviation in positioning. To the first electrodes M.sub.1 and the second electrodes M.sub.2, a first clock pulse .phi..sub.1 and a second clock pulse .phi..sub.2 are applied respectively and electric charges are transferred in response to these clock pulses.

Charge coupled device for transferring electric charge

An apparatus having a charge coupled device which is used as a solid state type image pickup apparatus and prior to inversion of the level of drive pulses supplied to two electrode groups from among a plurality of electrode groups of a CCD, each electrode group is disconnected once electrically from each drive pulse generating circuit, in which period two electrode groups whose level of drive pulse are inverted are electrically short-circuited, whereby all the charges in capacitors formed between the electrodes and a substrate are not discharged but about half of the charges can be reused for charging another capacitor which is formed between the electrodes and the substrate and is to be charged next, thus enabling a saving of power consumption, a reduction of heat dissipation losses, and enabling the miniaturization of the image pickup apparatus using a charge coupled device.

Conserving stored charge in apparatus having a charge coupled device

A CCD imager includes a CCD from which a video signal added with a smear signal and the smear signal itself are produced. Using a subtracter, the smear signal is removed from the video signal from CCD. When the video signal from CCD exceeds a predetermined level indicating that the charge accumulated in the CCD is regulated to the maximum available voltage with the excess charge being drained away, the video signal from the CCD before being subtracted is selected. Accordingly, an image having no undesirable dark spot within the bright area can be reproduced.

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Ogaki, Japan

Nobuhiro Mitani