Image sensor and electronic camera
AssigneeNikon Corporation
InventorOsamu Saruwatari
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image sensor includes a first voltage source that supplies a first voltage and a plurality of pixels supplied with the first voltage. The pixel includes a photoelectric conversion unit that photoelectrically converts incident light, an accumulation unit to which an electric charge resulting from photoelectric conversion by the photoelectric conversion unit is transferred and accumulated, a transfer unit that transfers the electric charge from the photoelectric conversion unit to the accumulation unit; a second voltage source that supplies a second voltage, and a supply unit that supplies the transfer unit with a transfer signal based on either the first voltage supplied by the first voltage source or the second voltage supplied by the second voltage source.
Claims18
An image sensor comprising:
- a plurality of pixels, each of the pixels having:
- (i) a photoelectric conversion unit that photoelectrically converts light to generate a charge, (ii) an accumulation unit that accumulates the charge generated by the photoelectric conversion unit, (iii) a transfer unit that transfers the charge generated by the photoelectric conversion unit to the accumulation unit, and (iv) a supply unit that supplies the transfer unit with a signal to control the transfer unit, wherein:
- the supply unit is provided to correspond to each of the pixels,
- for each of the pixels, the transfer unit electrically connects the photoelectric conversion unit and the accumulation unit and transfers the electric charge generated by the photoelectric conversion unit to the accumulation unit, and
- for each of the pixels, the supply unit supplies the transfer unit with a first signal for electrically connecting the photoelectric conversion unit and the accumulation unit, and supplies the transfer unit with a second signal for electrically disconnecting the photoelectric conversion unit and the accumulation unit.
An image sensor comprising:
- a plurality of pixels, each of the pixels having:
- (i) a photoelectric conversion unit that photoelectrically converts light to generate a charge, (ii) a reset unit that resets the electric charge generated by the photoelectric conversion unit, and (iii) a supply unit that supplies the reset unit with a signal to control the reset unit, wherein:
- the supply unit is provided to correspond to each of the pixels,
- for each of the pixels, the reset unit electrically connects the photoelectric conversion unit and a predetermined voltage source and resets the electric charge generated by the photoelectric conversion unit, and
- for each of the pixels, the supply unit supplies the reset unit with a first signal based on a first voltage and a second voltage for electrically connecting the photoelectric conversion unit and a predetermined voltage source, and supplies the reset unit with a second signal based on the first voltage and a predetermined voltage for electrically disconnecting the photoelectric conversion unit and the predetermined voltage source.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.