Minolta Company, Ltd.

Konica-minolta Holdings, Inc.

Nissan Motor Company Limited

Knoica Minolta Holdings, Inc.

Tomokazu Kakumoto

Yoshio Hagihara

Masayuki Kusuda

Kraisorn Throngnumchai

So Yano

Shigehiro Miyatake

Koichi Kamon

Yoshihiro Tanaka

Satoshi Nakamura

Kazuchika Sato

Takashi Morimoto

Tsuyoshi Iwamoto

Katsuhiko Asai

Yasushi Kusaka

By feeding an appropriate voltage as a signal &#x3c6;TX to a transfer gate TG, a MOS transistor Tis operated in a threshold region. A potential linearly or natural logarithmically converted by a buried photodiode PD is transferred to an N-type floating diffusion layer FD so as to be fed out, as an image signal, via MOS transistors Tand T

Solid-state image-sensing device having a plurality of controlled pixels, with each pixel having a transfer gate signal that is ternary-voltage signal switched among three levels, and method of operating same

When the brightness of a subject detected by a detecting deviceis higher than a predetermined value, for example 700 [cd/m], a switching judgment circuitjudges that an area sensor (solid-state image-sensing device)should perform logarithmic conversion. In response to this judgment by the switching judgment circuit, a switching signal generating circuitoutputs a switching signal to instruct the area sensorto perform logarithmic conversion. When the brightness of the subject detected by the detecting deviceis lower than the predetermined value, for example 700 [cd/m], a switching judgment circuitjudges that the area sensorshould perform linear conversion. In response to this judgment by the switching judgment circuit, the switching signal generating circuitoutputs a switching signal to instruct the area sensorto perform linear conversion.

Image-sensing apparatus

By feeding an appropriate voltage as a signal &#x3c6;TX to a transfer gate TG, a MOS transistor T, is operated in a threshold region. A potential linearly or natural logarithmically converted by a buried photodiode PD is transferred to an N-type floating diffusion layer FD so as to be fed out, as an image signal, via MOS transistors Tand T

Solid-state image-sensing device and camera provided therewith

There is described an image capturing apparatus, which makes it possible to unify the gradation characteristics all over the captured image into the same characteristic. The image capturing apparatus includes an image sensor that is provided with a first photoelectric conversion characteristic, a second photoelectric conversion characteristic being different from the first photoelectric conversion characteristic and a third photoelectric conversion characteristic being a transient characteristic between the first photoelectric conversion characteristic and the second photoelectric conversion characteristic; and a characteristic converting section to convert the first photoelectric conversion characteristic, the second photoelectric conversion characteristic and the third photoelectric conversion characteristic to a reference photoelectric conversion characteristic. The first photoelectric conversion characteristic is a linear characteristic, the second photoelectric conversion characteristic is a logarithmic characteristic and the reference photoelectric conversion characteristic is either a linear or a logarithmic characteristic.

Image capturing apparatus including an image sensor having three photoelectric conversion characteristics with each corresponding to a range of luminance intensity

An object of the present invention is to provide a solid-state image sensing device configured to change a bias voltage given to the photoelectric converting section at the time of resetting so that an operative condition of the photoelectric converting section after the resetting can be maintained a constant condition regardless of an amount of the incident light. To achieve the object, an MOS transistor Tis provided. The drain of the MOS transistor Tis connected with a gate and a drain of an MOS transistor Tand the source of the MOS transistor Tconfigured to be applied a DC voltage VRS. Here, a signal &#x3a6; V is given, an MOS transistor Tis turned on, and image data is output. A signal &#x3a6; RS is given and the MOS transistor Tis turned on. As a result, a gate voltage Vg of the MOS transistor Tis maintained as a constant voltage value. Then, a reset operation for pixels is stared.

Solid-state image sensing device including reset circuitry and image sensing device including the solid-state image sensing device and method for operating the same

A level shifter () shifts a signal level of a noise signal produced from a pixel so that the signal level becomes close to a reference level, and then a level shifter () complements the noise signal whose level was shifted by the level shifter () by a signal level corresponding to the level shifted by the level shifter (). After that, the differential amplifier () performs subtraction operation between the noise signal that has passed the level shifters () and the image signal from the pixel, so as to output the image signal without noises.

Solid state image sensing device with level fluctuation suppression

Switches SHS and RSM are turned on to hold an image signal at a negative electrode of a capacitor Cs, then a switch SHN is turned on to hold a noise signal at a positive electrode of a capacitor Cn. Then a switch RSP is turned on and then a switch MIX is turned on to combine together the image and noise signals thus held and thereby produce, as a voltage signal, a noise-free image signal at the node between the capacitor Cs and the switch MIX. Then a switch Sx is turned on to output the noise-free image signal.

Solid-state pixel sensitivity variation correcting image-sensing device

A solid-state image-sensing elementis fed with, from a coupling controller, a signal &#x3c6;Sv that couples together the photoelectric conversion portions of every predetermined number of vertically adjacent pixels and a signal &#x3c6;Sh that couples together the photoelectric conversion portions of every predetermined number of horizontally adjacent pixels. This sets the numbers of pixels of which the photoelectric conversion portions are coupled together horizontally and vertically. A pixel output controllerfeeds a signal that controls the connection between the photoelectric conversion portion and the signal output portion in each pixel, and, within each group of pixels so coupled together, signals are outputted from one of those pixels.

Solid-state image-sensing device with selectively grouped pixels

Solid-state image-sensing device for acquisition of sensed-image data is described. A photoelectric converter disconnecting switch is turned on to make a forcible reset switch perform resetting. Then, the logarithmic conversion MOS transistor is reset according to the threshold voltage thereof. Then, an output commensurate with the amount of light incident on the photoelectric converter is delivered. The photoelectric converter disconnecting switch is turned on to perform resetting and then turned off. Then, the voltage at the end of the logarithmic conversion MOS transistor that is not connected to the photoelectric converter disconnecting switch is reset according to its threshold voltage. This provides an output unrelated to the incident light. With this sequence of operations, variations in sensitivity among individual pixels can be corrected for without irradiation with uniform light.

Solid-state image-sensing device

In a solid-state image-sensing device, by global shuttering, whereby image sensing is performed simultaneously in all the pixels, a potential commensurate with the amount of light incident on a buried diode PD is held in an N-type floating diffusion region FD. Then a noise signal is outputted, and then the potential held in the N-type floating diffusion region FD is transferred to an N-type floating diffusion region FDso that an image signal is outputted.

Based on the output signal of an area sensor, a level adjustment circuitadjusts the bias voltage fed to the transistors provided within the individual pixels of the area sensorand operating in a subthreshold region and thereby adjusts the level of the output signal of the area sensor. According to whether the subject is illuminated with intense or dim light, the level of the output signal is lowered or raised, respectively.

Image-sensing device

An image pickup apparatus comprising: a plurality of pixels each with a photodiode, a logarithmic converter including a logarithmic-converting MOS transistor for converting an output of the photodiode into an electric signal proportional to a logarithmic value of an amount of incident light on the photodiode, and an integration circuit for accumulating an output from the logarithmic converter; a voltage controller for control of a voltage to be applied to the transistor; and an output circuit for receiving signals from the pixels and outputting processed signals. The voltage controller realizes a moving object extraction image pickup state in which an image pickup signal is generated for displaying at least a part of the moving object existing in an image picked-up region at a density different from that of a static background part.

Image pickup apparatus

In a solid-state image-sensing device, first a switch Swa is turned on to sample and hold an image signal in a capacitor Ca, and then the switch Swa is turned off. Next, a switch SWb is turned on to sample and hold a noise signal in a capacitor Cb, and then the switch SWb is turned off. Next, switches SWand SWare turned on simultaneously so that the image signal in the capacitor Ca is fed through a bufferto a capacitor Cc, and then the switches Swand Sware turned off. Then, a switch SWis turned on to reset the input side of the bufferNext, switches SWand SWare turned on simultaneously so that the noise signal in the capacitor Cb is fed through the buffer to a capacitor Cd, and then the switches SWand SWare turned off. Then, the switch SWis turned on to reset the input side of the bufferagain.

A scanning circuit operates at a driving speed approximately twice the conventional speed when clock signals having the same frequency as those in the prior art are supplied. By alternately driving the switches in even-numbered and odd-numbered transfer stages Tto Tn, the input side and the output side of each transfer stage are simultaneously made high in order of T, T, . . . and Tn. Logical AND circuits are connected to the even- and odd-numbered stages to output pulse signals for scanning at intervals shorter than the clock period.

Scanning circuit, and imaging apparatus having the same

In a solid-state image-sensing device, when an image sensing operation is performed in each pixel, a MOS transistor Tis turned on and a MOS transistor Tis turned off to make a MOS transistor Toperate in a subthreshold region. When a reset operation is performed in each pixel, the MOS transistor Tis turned off and the MOS transistor Tis turned on to feed a constant voltage to the gate and drain of the MOS transistor T. Then, the MOS transistor Tis turned off, then the voltage at the node 'a' is reset, and then a pulse signal &#x3c6;V is fed to a MOS transistor Tto obtain an output. By using the thus obtained output as compensation data, variations in sensitivity among individual pixels are reduced.

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Nagaokakyo, Japan

Tomokazu Kakumoto