The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 07, 2003
Filed:
Feb. 02, 1999
Takao Kuroda, Osaka, JP;
Masayuki Masuyama, Kyoto, JP;
Abstract
In a solid state imaging apparatus, a normal function to read a pixel signal and an electronic shutter function are both realized by using a single shift register. The shift register successively transmits a driving signal supplied from a control unit. A selecting circuit is disposed correspondingly to each row of an imaging unit, and when the driving signal is output from a register corresponding to the row, the selecting circuit selectively executes a read operation or a reset operation in pixels belonging to the corresponding row in accordance with outputs of preceding and following registers. The driving signal is set to be differently supplied between the normal mode and the electronic shutter mode, so that outputs of preceding and following registers can be different between these modes. As a result, a read operation and a reset operation can be selectively conducted in the normal mode and the electronic shutter mode, respectively in the imaging unit.