Solid-state imaging device, method of driving solid-state imaging device, and imaging apparatus
AssigneeSony Corporation
InventorNorihiro Nikai
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A solid-state imaging device includes: a pixel unit in which a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements are arranged; a comparison unit comparing a reference signal with a signal acquired by the photoelectric conversion element of the pixel unit; a reference signal generating unit generating the reference signal; a counting unit counting an amount of time when the relative magnitude of the pixel signal and the reference signal is inverted by the comparison unit; and an offset setting unit setting an offset in the reference signal generated by the reference signal generating unit.
Claims11
A solid-state imaging device comprising:
- a pixel unit in which a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements are arranged;
- a comparison unit comparing a reference signal with a signal acquired by the photoelectric conversion element of the pixel unit;
- a reference signal generating unit generating the reference signal;
- a counting unit counting an amount of time when the relative magnitude of the pixel signal and the reference signal is inverted by the comparison unit;
- and
- an offset setting unit setting an offset in the reference signal generated by the reference signal generating unit.
A method of driving a solid-state imaging device having
- a comparison unit comparing a reference signal with a signal acquired by a pixel unit;
- a reference signal generating unit generating the reference signal;
- and
- a counting unit counting an amount of time when the relative magnitude of the pixel signal and the reference signal is inverted by the comparison unit,
- the method comprising the step of:
- setting an offset in the reference signal generated by the reference signal generating unit.
An imaging apparatus comprising
- a solid state imaging device acquiring an image signal from an image of a subject and a signal processor processing the signal acquired by the solid-state imaging device,
- wherein the solid-state imaging device includes:
- a pixel unit in which a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements are arranged;
- a comparison unit comparing a reference signal with a signal acquired by the photoelectric conversion element of the pixel unit;
- a reference signal generating unit generating the reference signal;
- a counting unit counting an amount of time when the relative magnitude of the pixel signal and the reference signal is inverted by the comparison unit;
- and
- an offset setting unit setting an offset in the reference signal generated by the reference signal generating unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.