Olympus Corporation

Takahiro Nishiwaki

Nana Akahane

Makoto Ono

Satoru Adachi

Katsumi Hosogai

An imaging element includes: a plurality of pixels; first vertical transfer lines; a second vertical transfer line; a reference voltage generator configured to generate a first reference voltage for a column-black reference signal, a second reference voltage for a line-black reference signal and a third reference voltage for phase adjustment; a phase adjusting signal generator configured to output a phase adjusting signal corresponding to the third reference voltage; a first reference signal generator configured to generate a column-black reference signal corresponding to the first reference voltage; a second reference signal generator configured to generate a line-black reference signal corresponding to the second reference voltage; and a timing generator configured to drive the phase adjusting signal generator, the first reference signal generator and the second reference signal generator to transmit the phase adjusting signal, the column-black reference signal and the line-black reference signal, respectively.

Imaging element, imaging device, endoscope, endoscope system, and method of driving imaging element

An imaging device causes a signal to be output from a first transfer line via a second transfer unit by a noise signal reading operation and a light-noise sum signal reading operation, the noise signal reading operation resetting a transfer capacitor when a signal of a charge converter is output to the first transfer line after a first transfer unit is turned into an OFF state and the charge converter is reset, and the light-noise sum signal reading operation outputting the signal of the charge converter to the first transfer line after the transfer capacitor resetting unit is turned into an OFF state, the first transfer unit is turned into an ON state, and a charge accumulated by a photoelectric conversion element is transferred.

Growing community of inventors

Tsukuba, Japan

Takahiro Nishiwaki