Sony Corporation

Tetsuro Kumesawa

Hiromichi Matsui

Tetsuya Iizuka

Naoki Nishi

Mamoru Iesaka

Osamu Nishima

Michio Yamamura

Yasuo Kanou

Takashi Fukusyo

Hiroshi Terakawa

Masaaki Isobe

A solid state imaging device in which &#x3b3; characteristic is obtained and enlargement of dynamic range is provided. The solid state imaging device of the present invention includes a vertical overflow function and has a feature in which potential of a semiconductor substrate is changed from a high potential to a low potential in a stepwise manner during a period from an exposure start to an exposure end.

Solid state imaging device

A solid state imaging device in which &#x3b3; characteristic is obtained and enlargement of dynamic range is provided. The solid state imaging device includes a vertical overflow function and has a feature in which potential of a semiconductor substrate is changed from a high potential to a low potential in a stepwise manner during a period from an exposure start to an exposure end.

A solid state imaging device in which &#x3a5; characteristic is obtained and enlargement of dynamic range is provided. The solid state imaging device of the present invention includes a vertical overflow function and has a feature in which potential of a semiconductor substrate is changed from a high potential to a low potential in a stepwise manner during a period from an exposure start to an exposure end.

A charge transferring apparatus comprising, e.g., a buried type charge coupled device in which a pair of transfer electrodes located at the most downstream point of a charge transfer direction is driven by a drive pulse other than that for any other pair of transfer electrodes and a potential well formed at the pair of the transfer electrodes located at the most downstream point is made shallower than that at any other pair of transfer electrodes allowing the output dynamic range of a charge transfer device to be increased for improving the output quality.

Apparatus for transferring electric charges

A solid state imaging device and method of operating the same includes an imaging section for converting incident light into a signal charge which is temporarily stored in a storage section before being read out. A vertical transfer register extends from an imaging section to a storage section. A transfer clock pulse is applied to a portion of the vertical transfer register disposed in the storage section such that the potential of the vertical transfer register in the storage section is deeper than that in the imaging section. Excess charge is transferred to a smear drain section. According to an alternate feature, the potential of the vertical transfer register within either the imaging section or the storage section is maintained constant. A further feature makes use of two drain regions disposed at respective distal ends of the imaging section and the storage section.

Method of and apparatus for solid state imaging device

An FIT solid state image sensor including an image section having an array of photosensitive elements, a storage section for temporarily storing signal charges transferred thereto from the image section, a plurality of vertical shift registers provided for respective vertical lines of the array, and a horizontal shift register for horizontally transferring the signal charges transferred vertically through the vertical shift registers. Clock pulses are applied to the vertical transfer registers during a line shift transfer period of transferring the signal charges from the storage section to the horizontal shift register. The voltage levels of the clock pulses are set to provide the same potential between the photosensitive elements arranged in odd horizontal lines of the array and the photosensitive elements arranged in even horizontal line of the array.

Fit solid state image sensor with flicker suppression

A CCD shift register which is improved in the transfer efficiency with a minimal decrease in the amount of electric charge that can be handled. The CCD shift register has an array of transfer electrodes, each comprising a pair of storage and transfer gate electrodes, which are formed on a semiconductor substrate through a gate insulator. A semiconductor region under each storage gate electrode is divided into a plurality of subregions by using impurities.

CCD shift register having a plurality of storage regions and transfer

A CCD imager includes a large number of light receiving sections each having in turn a semiconductor surface region of a second conductivity type, a first semiconductor region of a first conductivity type, a semiconductor region of the second conductivity type and a second semiconductor region of the first conductivity type, vertically. The second semiconductor region is formed by a dual structure of the low concentration semiconductor region and the high concentration semiconductor region. The dual structure provides for shuttering at a lower voltage since the potential barrier along the depth of the light receiving section is no longer affected by the amount of the stored charges, while spreading of the depletion layer at the junction is suppressed by the high concentration semiconductor region.

CCD imager

A solid state imager device having a substrate of a first conductivity type, a charge storage area of a second conductivity type formed on the substrate of the first conductivity type, and a forward electrode formed on the charge storage area of the second conductivity type through an insulating layer, and the forward electrode is alternately supplied with a first voltage for accumulating charges of the first conductivity type on a boundary between the charge storage area of the second conductivity type and the insulating layer and a second voltage so as to extend the depletion layer formed beneath the charge storage area of the second conductivity type.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Tetsuro Kumesawa