Panasonic Corporation

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Matsushita Electronics Corporation

Matsushita Electrons Corporation

Yoshiaki Kato

Hiroshi Masuda

Kousaku Yano

Shinichi Domae

Mizuki Segawa

Hiroaki Nakaoka

Akiyoshi Kohno

Takashi Nakabayashi

Takashi Uehara

Atsushi Hori

Mitsuo Yasuhira

Akihira Shinohara

Ichiro Matsuo

Akiyoshi Tamura

Yuji Matsuda

Takeshi Fujita

Takaaki Ukeda

Susumu Akamatsu

Yoshiharu Anda

Keijirou Itakura

Toshitaka Hibi

Kazuya Yonemoto

Akio Miyajima

Tsuyoshi Hasuka

Tatsuya Yamada

Tomohiro Honda

Toyoyuki Shimazaki

Tadami Shimizu

Takehiko Ueda

Tatsuya Obata

Akihiko Nishio

Hiroshi Matsumoto

Toshiya Fujii

Sei Suzuki

Kazumi Kurimoto

Takuya Asano

Ryoichi Nagayoshi

Izumi Shimizu

Keisuke Kojima

Takuya Nohara

Toshihumi Habara

Kunihide Hirai

Tuneo Yamaguchi

A solid-state imaging device includes vertical transfer units each including first and second transfer units. A drive control unit controls transfer processes of the vertical transfer units so that (i) after transferring a packet, the first transfer unit stops transferring another packet in a period during which the packet is horizontally transferred, (ii) the second transfer unit in the same group transfers the packet to a horizontal transfer unit at a timing different from a timing at which another second transfer unit in the same group transfers a different packet to the horizontal transfer unit, (iii) the horizontal transfer unit horizontally transfers the received packet in a horizontal transfer period different from another horizontal transfer period during which the different packet is horizontally transferred, and (iv) at least one charge transfer stage serving as the well region differs between these horizontal transfer periods.

Solid-state imaging device, driving method thereof, and camera

A solid-state imaging device includes photoelectric conversion units, vertical transfer units including vertical transfer electrodes, a horizontal transfer unit, a distribution transfer unit including distribution transfer electrodes, and first light-shield layers and second light-shield layers provided on the vertical transfer units and the distribution transfer unit. The first light-shield layers and the second light-shield layers are conductive. The first light-shield layers are provided in a layer different from a layer in which the second light-shield layers are provided. At least one of the first light-shield layers serves as an interconnect electrically connected to the vertical transfer electrodes included in the same row, and at least one of the first light-shield layers on the distribution transfer unit serves as an interconnect electrically connected the distribution transfer electrodes. The first light-shield layers are disposed so as not to overlap with the horizontal transfer unit.

Solid state imaging device

A multilayer wiring structure of a semiconductor device having a stacked structure is arranged to restrain reliability degradation due to stress applied to the region of wiring between opposite upper and lower plugs. The rate of overlap of contact surface between upper plug and wiring on contact surface between lower plug and wiring, is small to the extent that no void is generated. The multilayer wiring structure is produced such that no grain boundary is contained in the region of wiring between upper and lower plugs. The difference in thermal expansion coefficient between the material of wiring and the material of upper and lower plugs, is small to the extent that no void is generated.

Multilayer wiring structure of semiconductor device, method of producing said multilayer wiring structure and semiconductor device to be used for reliability evaluation

An objective of the present invention is to provide the solid-state imaging device and the driving method thereof which can control: a poor picture quality, such as blooming, to maximize a dynamic range of the photodiode; and a poor picture quality resulted from an incomplete read-out operation. A solid-state imaging device in the present invention includes: a solid-state imaging element; and a driving pulse controlling unit applying a driving pulse to each of read-out gates of a column CCD. The driving pulse controlling unit transfers in a column direction signal charge within a charge transfer region of the column CCD by applying a column transfer clock having a LOW level voltage and a MIDDLE level voltage, and the LOW level voltage and the MIDDLE level voltage are minus voltages.

An imaging apparatus capable of suppressing deterioration of image qualities and output properties is provided having one or more output circuits in series and a buffer circuit, and processing luminance signals from photodetectors to output image information, the buffer circuit performing impedance conversion on signals outputted from a final output circuit of the one or more output circuits, the final output circuit being a source follower circuit that has an active element and a current source circuitwhich is inserted between a source terminal of the active element and a reference voltage terminal, wherein the current source circuit and the buffer circuitare external to a solid-state image sensorhaving the photodetectors, and a main part of the current source circuitand a main part of the buffer circuitare in a single package.

Imaging apparatus and device

To provide a solid-state imaging apparatus which is capable of preventing electric charge from being injected from a semiconductor substrate while electric charge is being accumulated into photodiodes. The solid-state imaging apparatus includes a solid-state imaging device and a driving pulse control unit. The solid-state imaging device includes: a semiconductor substrate, photodiodes which are two-dimensionally formed on the semiconductor substrate, and vertical Charge-coupled devices (CCDs) having at least one arranged read-out gate and non-read-out gate for each of the photodiodes, the read-out gate being for reading out accumulated electric charge from the associated photodiode, and the non-read-out gate being not for reading out accumulated electric charge from the associated photodiode. The driving pulse control unit applies driving pulses sequentially to the respective read-out gates in order to change the read-out gates from stand-by LOW-voltage states to MIDDLE-voltage states, and apply a driving pulse for maintaining a LOW-voltage state of at least one of non-read-out gates adjacent to a last read-out gate in the order of the change among the non-read-out gates, during the change starting with a first read-out gate and ending with the last read-out gate.

Solid-state imaging apparatus and method for driving the same

A driving method is applied to a solid-state imaging apparatus having photoelectric conversion portions, transfer portion for reading out signal charges, and an excess charge draining portion for draining charges exceeding a saturation charge amount that is set by a reference voltage. One of driving modes is selected from a full pixel mode in which accumulated signal charges are detected individually for each pixel and a pixel mixing mode in which signal charges of a predetermined number of pixels are mixed to be detected. In the full pixel mode, the draining portion is supplied with the reference voltage having the same value during a charge accumulation period and a read transfer period for read transferring charges. In the pixel mixing mode, the draining portion is supplied with the reference voltage having a low level during the charge accumulation period and the reference voltage having a high level during the read transfer period. An appropriate driving for the pixel mixing mode can be performed by avoiding a limitation of a substrate voltage, without deteriorating the spectral characteristics, the sensitivity, nor the linearity.

Method for driving solid-state imaging apparatus and solid-state imaging apparatus

The solid-state imaging device of the present invention includes: photodiodes which are two-dimensionally arranged; light condensers each of which condenses light and is provided in a position to correspond to two of the photodiodes which are adjacent to each other; and separating units each of which separates the light entering through the light condensers into first light having a wavelength within a predetermined range, and second light having a wavelength out of the predetermined range, and is provided in a position to correspond to one of the light condensers. Each of the separating units includes: a light-selecting unit which selectively allows transmission of one of the first light and the second light and reflect the other one of the first light and the second light, and allow entering of the transmitted light to one of the corresponding two of the photodiodes; and a light-reflecting unit which reflects the light, reflected by the light-selecting unit, towards the other one of the corresponding two of the photodiodes.

Solid-state imaging device, camera and signal processing method

A solid-state imaging device includes: a plurality of light-receiving elements which are arranged by rows and columns. A driving unit performs a driving, so that a signal packet and a plurality of dummy packets in an identical column are mixed together into a mixed packet in each holding units, charges of the mixed packet are held in a hold unit, the held charges of the mixed packet are vertically transferred to a horizontal transfer unit so that the mixed packet is mixed with a mixed packet of a different hold unit which is vertically transferred from the different hold unit to the horizontal transfer unit.

A semiconductor device which includes both an E-FET and a D-FET and can facilitate control of the Vth in an E-FET and suppress a decrease in the Vf, and a manufacturing method of the same are provided. A semiconductor device which includes both an E-FET and a D-FET on the same semiconductor substrate includes: a first threshold adjustment layer for adjusting threshold of the E-FET; a first etching stopper layer formed on the first threshold adjustment layer; the second threshold adjustment layer formed on the first etching stopper layer for adjusting threshold of the D-FET; a second etching stopper layer formed on the second threshold adjustment layer; a first gate electrode penetrating through the first etching stopper layer, the second threshold adjustment layer, and the second etching stopper layer, which is in contact with the first threshold adjustment layer; and the second gate electrode penetrating through the second etching stopper layer, which is in contact with the second threshold adjustment layer.

Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof

Imaging apparatus and a device for use therewith

A solid-state imaging device, and a camera provided with this device, that can output high quality images at high speed are realized by preventing improper OB clamping in a solid-state imaging device that performs pixel mixing in the horizontal direction. Vertical final stages, which are the transfer stages closest to a horizontal transfer component, are provided with provided with independent transfer electrodes V-, V-, V-, V-, V-, and V-that are independent of other columns in a region between the horizontal transfer component and an effective pixel region, and a common transfer electrode that is common to all of the columns in the region between the horizontal transfer componentand the OB region. Further, in the vertical final stages, the entire region between the OB region and the horizontal transfer component, or the region minus openings formed for the wiring of V-and V-in the columns closest to the effective pixel region, is covered with a light blocking film.

Solid-state imaging device with OB region and camera provided with the same

A solid-state imaging apparatus includes: a plurality of light-receiving elements which are arranged by rows and columns; a plurality of vertical transfer units each of which is arranged for a corresponding column of the light-receiving elements, and is operable to vertically transfer a plurality of signal packets and a dummy packet in a packets-mixing mode, the signal packet including charges read from the light-receiving elements, the dummy packet being a packet other than the signal packets, and N columns of the vertical transfer units forming one column group; a plurality of holding units which are arranged in final stages of the vertical transfer units in N columns except M columns in the column group, and each of which is operable to mix, hold, and vertically transfer charges of the signal packets and the dummy packet without depending on vertical transfer from upstream of the corresponding vertical transfer unit; a horizontal transfer unit operable to mix, hold, and horizontally transfer the charges transferred from the holding units or the vertical transfer units in the M columns in the column group; and a driving unit operable to drive the vertical transfer units, the holding units, and the horizontal transfer unit, wherein the driving unit is operable to drive, in the packets-mixing mode, the holding units and the horizontal transfer unit to generate a first mixed packet and a second mixed packet in the horizontal transfer unit, the first mixed packet includes: a plurality of signal packets belonging to a same row and neighbor columns of a same color; and a dummy packet belonging to a same column as the signal packets, and the second mixed packet includes no signal packet but a plurality of dummy packets in a same column as the signal packets included in the first mixed packets.

Solid-state imaging apparatus, driving method thereof, and camera

Provided is a solid-state imaging device including a plurality of vertical transfer units (VCCDs), a horizontal transfer unit (HCCD) and a driving unit. In a vertical final stage of the VCCDs, there are same transfer electrode structures in every m columns, where m is equal to or more than 2, the vertical final stage being a vertical transfer stage located the closest to the HCCD, in each vertical final stage of columns except one column among the m columns or of all columns among the m columns, there are transfer electrodes independent from electrodes in the other columns in the m columns, and the independent transfer electrodes are driven independently to perform transfer processing from the corresponding vertical final stage to the HCCD, the driving being independent from driving for the electrodes in the other columns in the m columns, and the driving unit performs sequential vertical transfer driving, by which first packets and second packets are sequentially and vertically transferred within one horizontal transfer period, the first packet including a signal component to be used as an image signal and the second packet not including any signal component to be used as an image signal, and to apply, in the sequential vertical transfer driving, respective transfer pulses to the transfer electrodes in the vertical transfer stage and transfer electrodes of the HCCD, so that the first packets and the second packets are separated to be allocated into respective different horizontal transfer stages of the HCCD.

Solid-state imaging device, driving method thereof, and camera that separate image component signal and non-image component signal

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Shiga, Japan

Yoshiaki Kato