| Patent application number | Description | Published |
|---|
| 20090034032 | SOLID-STATE IMAGING APPARATUS - A solid-state imaging apparatus, of lower power consumption and a smaller area with maintaining sufficient performance, includes a plurality of pixels for reading a plurality of color components, a plurality of holding units holding a signal from each pixel, a plurality of common output lines to which the plurality of respective holding units corresponding to respective color components are connected, and a plurality of output circuits connected to the plurality of common output lines. Then, at least two of the plurality of common output lines are connected to one of the plurality of output circuits through a selecting unit. In addition, outputs of a holding unit to which pixels of at least two different color components among the plurality of pixels in the unit cell are connected are connected to one of the plurality of common output lines through a selecting unit. | 02-05-2009 |
| 20090115876 | SOLID-STATE IMAGING APPARATUS, DRIVING METHOD THEREOF, CAMERA, AND COPIER - A solid-state imaging apparatus includes a plurality of unit cells, each including a plurality of pixels having mutually different color components and a first selecting unit outputting one of the signals from the plurality of pixels selectively. The unit cells are classified into groups. The solid-state imaging apparatus further includes holding units, each provided to each of the unit cells and holding the signal output from the first selecting unit, a plurality of common output lines for outputting signals of mutually different color components, and second selecting units, each selecting one of the plurality of common output lines to output the signals held in the holding unit to the selected common output line. The first selecting units severally output a signal of a different color component from each of the unit cell groups. | 05-07-2009 |
| 20090141157 | IMAGE SENSING APPARATUS AND IMAGING SYSTEM - An image sensing apparatus includes an output unit including a first output line which transmits a first signal of the first pixel, a second output line which transmits a second signal of the first pixel, a third output line which transmits a first signal of the second pixel, a fourth output line which transmits a second signal of the second pixel, a first difference circuit which operates the difference between the first signal and the second signal of the first pixel to generate a first image signal, and a second difference circuit which operates the difference between the first signal and the second signal of the second pixel to generate a second image signal, wherein the first output line is arranged between the third output line and the fourth output line, and the third output line is arranged between the first output line and the second output line. | 06-04-2009 |
| 20090322922 | SOLID-STATE IMAGING APPARATUS - In order to suppress a variation of a signal held by each signal holding unit, a solid-state imaging apparatus of the present invention is characterized in that, when a clamp operation of a pixel output signal is performed in the signal holding unit, a time changing rate of an amplitude of a drive pulse supplied to the selecting unit for turning from a non-conducting state to a conducting state is not larger than a time changing rate of the amplitude of the drive pulse supplied to the selecting unit for turning from the conducting state to the non-conducting state. | 12-31-2009 |
| 20100006743 | PHOTOELECTRIC CONVERSION APPARATUS, IMAGING SYSTEM, AND PHOTOELECTRIC CONVERSION APPARATUS MANUFACTURING METHOD - A photoelectric conversion apparatus having a pixel array region and a peripheral region includes a pixel array, a readout unit, an output unit, a plurality of output lines, and a color filter layer which is arranged in the pixel array region and the peripheral region and includes a color filter arranged above the plurality of pixels. The color filter layer extends to surround the output lines when viewed from a direction perpendicular to a surface of a semiconductor substrate, and has an opening arranged above the plurality of output lines. The opening of the color filter layer is filled with gas or an insulator lower in dielectric constant than the color filter. | 01-14-2010 |
| 20100079648 | DRIVING METHOD OF SOLID-STATE IMAGING APPARATUS - A driving method of a solid-state imaging apparatus including multiple reference level supplying units each arranged correspondingly to a predetermined number of signal holding units, to supply a reference level to an output node of the signal holding unit through the selecting unit, wherein the method includes steps of: performing a clamping operation for sampling and holding the signal in the signal holding unit, by terminating turn ON pulses to be supplied to the selecting units successively in separate timings, one for each one of the selecting units, or one for each group of the selecting units while the reference level is supplied from the reference level supplying unit to the output node; and performing an operation of selecting the signal holding units through the selecting units, by supplying the turn ON pulses successively to the selecting units, to read out the signals successively from the signal holding units selected. | 04-01-2010 |
| 20100214461 | SOLID-STATE IMAGING APPARATUS - A solid-state imaging apparatus includes a plurality of unit cell groups arranged in a row direction and a plurality of common output lines for transmitting output signals from the plurality of unit cell groups, each including a plurality of unit cells arranged in the row direction. Each of the plurality of unit cells includes an m number of pixels arranged in a column direction and including photoelectric conversion elements each converting incident light to different color signals; an m number of holding units holding color signals of the m number of pixels; an m number of color selecting switches each selecting one color signal from within the color signals held in the m number of holding units; and a transfer switch outputting the color signals selected by the color selecting switches to one common output line of the plurality of common output lines. | 08-26-2010 |
| 20100214463 | SOLID STATE IMAGING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF DRIVING THE SAME - In a solid-state imaging apparatus, during a horizontal scanning period, a pixel signal is written in a first holding unit, while a horizontal scanning circuit outputs, to the horizontal common output line, the other pixel signal held by a second holding unit. And, a transition time of an edge of a sampling pulse during the horizontal scanning period is set longer than a transition time of an edge of the sampling pulse during a time period other than the horizontal scanning period. | 08-26-2010 |
| 20110080625 | SOLID-STATE IMAGING APPARATUS - A solid-state imaging apparatus comprises a plurality of unit cell groups including a plurality of unit cells each including a plurality of light shielded optical black pixels, non-light shielded effective pixels and amplifying circuits for amplifying signals from the pixels; and holding capacitors each receiving a signal from corresponding unit cell, so that signals are transferred from all the pixels by a vertical transfer operation and a horizontal transfer operation, each of which is repeated by the number of times equal to the number of the unit cell groups, such that the signals from an optical black pixel and an effective pixel are respectively transferred by the vertical transfer operation and the signals transferred by the vertical transfer operation are successively read out by the horizontal transfer operation to reduce the degrading image quality due to artifact by properly removing an offset varying for each output if it occurs. | 04-07-2011 |
