| Patent application number | Description | Published |
| 20080239123 | SOLID-STATE IMAGING DEVICE, METHOD FOR DRIVING SOLID-STATE IMAGING DEVICE AND CAMERA SYSTEM - A solid-state imaging device includes an imaging section having multiple pixels laid out in a matrix form for performing photoelectric conversion and multiple vertical transfer sections that vertically transfer signal charges of the multiple pixels in columns, a control section that controls the transfer, hold and addition of signal charges transferred from each of the vertical transfer sections, at least two horizontal transfer sections that horizontally transfer signal charges output from the control section, and a horizontal-horizontal transfer section that transfers the signal charges of one horizontal transfer section that has received the signal charges transferred from the control section to the other horizontal transfer section. | 10-02-2008 |
| 20080266436 | TRANSFER PULSE SUPPLYING CIRCUIT - A transfer pulse supplying circuit for supplying transfer pulses to a solid-state imaging apparatus including a charge transfer unit includes N (N is an integer of two or more) transfer pulse supplying wirings to which the transfer pulses are supplied, and lead-in wirings connecting the transfer pulse supplying wirings to corresponding lead-out wirings from the charge transfer unit. The respective lead-in wirings have almost the same width and length as one another. At least part of the lead-in wirings is divided into a first region and a second region by slits, and the first region is connected to the transfer pulse supplying wirings and the lead-out wiring, the second region is connected to the lead-out wiring. Regions of the respective lead-in wirings connected to the transfer pulse supplying wirings have almost the same ratio of width to length as one another. | 10-30-2008 |
| 20080290382 | SOLID-STATE IMAGING DEVICE AND CAMERA - A solid-state imaging device including: a substrate; a light-receiving part; a second-conductivity-type isolation layer; a detection transistor; and a reset transistor. | 11-27-2008 |
| 20090134911 | Drive method for driving element having capacity impedance, drive device, and imaging device - Three devices such as electric charge-coupled devices are each included in one of three phase impedance circuits composing a 3-phase LC resonance circuit as a device having a capacitive impedance. A driver circuit applies either of a logic level of 0, a high-impedance level or a logic level of 1 to each of nodes Node_A, Node_B and Node_C of the phase impedance circuits so as to result in sequential transitions of a state of resonance among the phase impedance circuits. In an operation to drive the phase impedance circuits, either of the logic level of 0, the high-impedance level and the logic level of 1 is applied to each of the nodes so as to sustain a phase difference of 2π/3 between the phase impedance circuits. In this way, the logical levels and the phases of the logical levels are assigned to the nodes in such a way that the logical levels do not overlap with each other at any timings each corresponding to a point of time. Thus, a driving apparatus for driving the devices each having a capacitive impedance is capable of reducing the power consumption. | 05-28-2009 |
| 20090147121 | SOLID STATE IMAGING DEVICE - A solid state imaging device including a plurality of photo diodes disposed in a matrix shape, a vertical transfer unit disposed along each vertical column of the photo diodes, and a horizontal transfer unit in which a predetermined number, two or more, of adjacent vertical transfer units are used as one group to correspond to a unit transfer bit, wherein at least one charge transfer unit corresponding to each group of the vertical transfer unit is provided for each group. | 06-11-2009 |
| 20090153708 | SOLID-STATE IMAGING DEVICE AND CAMERA - A solid-state imaging device includes pixel cells that are formed on a substrate having a first substrate surface side, on which light is irradiated, and a second substrate surface side, on which elements are formed, and separated by an adjacent cell group and an element separation layer for each of the pixel cells or with plural pixel cells as a unit. Each of the pixel cells has a first conductive well formed on the first substrate surface side and a second conductive well formed on the second substrate surface side. The first conductive well receives light from the first substrate surface side and has a photoelectric conversion function and a charge accumulation function for the received light. A transistor that detects accumulated charges in the first conductive well and has a threshold modulation function is formed in the second conductive well. | 06-18-2009 |
| 20090316035 | SOLID-STATE IMAGING DEVICE, METHOD FOR DRIVING SOLID-STATE IMAGING DEVICE, AND IMAGING APPARATUS - A solid-state imaging device includes an imaging unit, a charge control unit, and a horizontal transfer unit. The imaging unit includes a plurality of pixels arranged into a matrix for performing photoelectric conversion, and a plurality of vertical transfer units arranged in columns for vertically transferring signal charges of the plurality of pixels on a column-by-column basis. In a predetermined operation mode, a predetermined number of columns greater than one are used as a unit, and the charge control unit stops transferring charges from a vertical transfer unit in a predetermined column of the predetermined number of columns, and adds the signal charges transferred from the vertical transfer units in the two or more remaining columns of the predetermined number of columns to output the added signal charges. The horizontal transfer unit horizontally transfers the signal charges output from the charge control unit. | 12-24-2009 |
| 20100007781 | Solid-State Image Capturing Device, Driving Method Thereof, Camera, Electric Charge Transfer Device, Driving Method and Driving Device for Driving Load, and Electronic Equipment - A solid-state image-capturing device which has built in an image-capturing area including a light receiving element provided on a semiconductor substrate, a substrate bias circuit, and a clamp circuit for receiving output of the substrate bias circuit and applying the output of the substrate bias circuit to the semiconductor substrate in accordance with a substrate pulse, comprises a substrate bias control circuit for controlling so as to reduce an electric current of the clamp circuit during a predetermined period. | 01-14-2010 |
| 20100007782 | Solid-state image-capturing device, driving method thereof, camera electric charge transfer device, driving method and driving device for driving load, and electronic equipment - A solid-state image-capturing device which has built in an image-capturing area including a light receiving element provided on a semiconductor substrate, a substrate bias circuit, and a clamp circuit for receiving output of the substrate bias circuit and applying the output of the substrate bias circuit to the semiconductor substrate in accordance with a substrate pulse, comprises a substrate bias control circuit for controlling so as to reduce an electric current of the clamp circuit during a predetermined period. | 01-14-2010 |
| 20100020218 | Method for driving semiconductor device having capacitive load, method and apparatus for driving load, and electronic apparatus - When a signal is read from a CCD solid-state image pickup element, the CCD solid-state image pickup element is driven with at least two driving voltages so that high-speed reading is performed with generation of noise due to interference between the driving voltages reduced. The CCD solid-state image includes a charge storage section between a vertical transfer register and a horizontal transfer register. By performing the transfer of charge in the direction of columns during an effective transfer period of the transfer in the direction of rows, signal charge of one row generated by a light receiving sensor is transferred to the charge storage section, and by performing the transfer outside the effective transfer period in the transfer in the direction of the row, the signal charge of one row transferred to the charge storage section is transferred to the horizontal transfer register. | 01-28-2010 |
| 20100039541 | Method for driving semiconductor device having capacitive load, method and apparatus for driving load, and electronic apparatus - When a signal is read from a CCD solid-state image pickup element, the CCD solid-state image pickup element is driven with at least two driving voltages so that high-speed reading is performed with generation of noise due to interference between the driving voltages reduced. The CCD solid-state image includes a charge storage section between a vertical transfer register and a horizontal transfer register. By performing the transfer of charge in the direction of columns during an effective transfer period of the transfer in the direction of rows, signal charge of one row generated by a light receiving sensor is transferred to the charge storage section, and by performing the transfer outside the effective transfer period in the transfer in the direction of the row, the signal charge of one row transferred to the charge storage section is transferred to the horizontal transfer register. | 02-18-2010 |
| 20100128152 | Image pickup apparatus - An image pickup apparatus allowed to obtain parallax information while preventing a decline in apparent resolution. An image pickup apparatus includes: an image pickup lens having an aperture stop; an image pickup device including a plurality of pixels and obtaining image pickup data based on light received on the plurality of pixels; and a microlens array arranged between the image pickup lens and the image pickup device so that one microlens is allocated to 2×2 pixels in the image pickup device. The plurality of pixels are disposed in a fashion of two-dimensional arrangement along two directions rotated a certain angle with respect to a horizontal direction and a vertical direction, respectively. | 05-27-2010 |
| 20100141812 | SOLID-STATE IMAGING DEVICE, METHOD FOR PROCESSING SIGNAL OF SOLID-STATE IMAGING DEVICE, AND IMAGING APPARATUS - A solid-state imaging device includes a color filter unit disposed on a pixel array unit including pixels two-dimensionally arranged in a matrix and a conversion processing unit disposed on a substrate having the pixel array unit thereon. The color filter unit has a color arrangement in which a color serving as a primary component of a luminance signal is arranged in a checkerboard pattern and a plurality of colors serving as color information components are arranged in the other area of the checkerboard pattern. The conversion processing unit converts signals that are output from the pixels of the pixel array unit and that correspond to the color arrangement of the color filter unit into signals that correspond to a Bayer arrangement and outputs the converted signals. | 06-10-2010 |
| 20100238330 | SOLID-STATE IMAGING DEVICE, SIGNAL PROCESSING METHOD THEREOF AND IMAGE CAPTURING APPARATUS - A solid-state imaging device includes a color filter array based on a checkered pattern array and in which two pixels adjacent to each other in at least one of upper/lower and right/left directions have the same color. The color filter array is a color filter array in which a spatial sampling point (x, y) is approximately arranged in at least one of (x=3*(2n−1+oe)+1±2 and y=3m−2 (n and m are an integer, oe has a value of 0 when m is an odd number and 1 when m is an even number)) and (x=3*(2n−1+oe)+1 and y=3m−2±2 (n and m denote an integer, and oe has a value of 0 when m is an odd number and 1 when m is an even number)). | 09-23-2010 |