Fuji Photo Film Company, Limited

Tetsuo Toma

Hideki Mutoh

Hiroshi Tanigawa

Kazuhiro Kawashiri

Tetsuo Yamada

Kazuhiro Kawajiri

Masashi Inuiya

Akio Sakoda

A solid state image sensing apparatus having: an image pickup device including; a semiconductor substrate of a first conductivity type, a well of a second conductivity type formed in the semiconductor substrate, charge accumulation regions of the first conductivity type formed in the well, and an overflow drain terminal electrically connected to the semiconductor substrate for controlling a potential barrier formed by the well; an amplifier for amplifying an output from the image pickup device; a sensitivity setter for setting a photographic sensitivity; and an output level controller for changing a saturation amount of charge accumulated in the charge accumulation region by changing the bias voltage applied to the overflow drain terminal in accordance with a set sensitivity.

Solid state image sensing apparatus with output level controller

Signal charges photo-excited and stored in photodiodes are read by two field read operations of interlace drive. At least during a period of reading a first field, a predetermined voltage is applied to the semiconductor substrate to set the potential barrier of a region between each photodiode and a corresponding overflow drain region higher than the channel potential barrier between the photodiode and a corresponding vertical transfer path. It is therefore possible to prevent signal charges to be read during the next field read operation from leaking to the overflow drain during the first field read operation.

Charge generation of solid state image pickup device

The vertical charge transfer paths have portions (regions A) whose both sides are defined, by the device isolation regions and portions (regions B) whose one side is defined by the device isolation regions . The impurity concentration of the device isolation regions used to define both sides is set lower than that of the device isolation regions used to define only one side such that a narrow channel effect in the portions of the vertical charge transfer paths , whose both sides are defined, can be reduced.

Solid state imaging device and method of manufacturing the same

An image signal processing apparatus includes: a solid-state image pickup device capable of taking a two-dimensional image, the device having a plurality of primary transfer paths and a secondary transfer path, wherein the plurality of primary first transfer each have a plurality of transfer stages each capable of storing electric charges and transfer the electric charges in a first direction, and the secondary transfer path has a plurality of transfer stages each capable of storing electric charges, receives electric charges in the plurality of primary transfer paths, and transfers the electric charges in a second direction; a reading unit for scanning the two-dimensional image on the solid-state image pickup device in a main scan direction corresponding to the second direction and in a sub-scan direction corresponding to the first direction and reading the electric charges in the secondary-transfer path as image signals; and an output unit for outputting the read image signals on a monitor by interchanging the main scan direction and the sub-scan direction.

Charge transfer of solid-state image pickup device

A solid state image pickup device having: a mode selector for selecting one of first and second modes; a plurality of photoelectric converters for converting received light into electric charges; transfer paths each having a plurality of packets for receiving the electric charges from the plurality of photoelectric converters and transferring the electric charges in each packet; a controller for reading the electric charges from each of the plurality of photoelectric converters and supplying the read electric charges to the transfer paths; and a driver for driving the transfer means in the selected first or second mode at the number of drive phases different from the number of drive phases of the non-selected mode.

Solid state image sensor with readout modes having different drive phases

A solid-state image pickup device of the charge-coupled type is improved in that the width W1 (as viewed in the charge transfer direction) of each of the transfer gate electrodes for generating transfer elements in the field shift mode, the width W2 (as viewed in the charge transfer direction) of each of the transfer gate electrode for generating potential barriers also in the field shift mode are selected so as to satisfy the following formula, and a buried channel junction depth X.sub.JBC of each of the vertical charge transfer paths are selected so as to satisfy W1&gt;W2 and/or W2&gt;2.multidot.X.sub.JBC. In the inventive image pickup device, the charge quantity transferred is increased without impairing the vertical resolution of the device.

Solid-state image pickup device

A solid-state CCD image pick-up device includes optoelectric transducing elements corresponding to pixels vertically and horizontally arrayed in a matrix forming column linear arrays defining a column direction and at least one vertical charge transfer path associated with a corresponding adjacent column linear array. Pixel signals are vertically transferred from the column linear arrays to the vertical charge transfer paths such that gate signals occurring at predetermined times are applied to gate electrodes of the vertical charge transfer paths to permit the pixel signals to be scan read by a horizontal charge transfer path. Switching elements are provided for transfer gate electrodes and a drive circuit sequentially generates drive signals for groups of gate electrodes during periods in which the switching elements are rendered conductive to allow a full frame scan read to be performed by supplying a predetermined number of timing signals to the gate electrodes. The pick-up device can be fabricated with high density integration and high pixel density and can be provided with an improved vertical overflow drain structure. The image pick-up device also provides an electronic shutter function having improved vertical resolution. A shift register for producing improved vertical resolution is also disclosed.

Solid-state image pick-up device for the charge-coupled device type

A method of driving a solid-state image pickup device includes steps of using vertical charge-coupled devices each having a pixel section and a vacant packet section to fetch all the electric charges stored in photoelectric conversion elements to the pixel sections of the vertical charge-coupled devices, feeding vacant packets into the vertical charge-coupled devices from a horizontal charge-coupled device at every N-th row, thereby dispersing the vacant packets while transferring the electric charges to the lowermost row of the vacant packet section, feeding the vacant packets corresponding to one row to the vertical charge-coupled devices from the horizontal charge-coupled device during only a horizontal blanking period of each horizontal period to thereby cause the vacant packets to be transferred upwardly along the vertical charge-coupled devices by M rows (where M&lt;N), while during a horizontal scanning period, the transfer along the vertical charge-coupled devices is interrupted and the electric charges corresponding to one row are transferred along the horizontal charge-coupled device.

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Miyagi, Japan

Tetsuo Toma