US 2015/0092097 A1 · IMAGING APPARATUS

Abstract

An imaging apparatus comprises: a pixel generating a photoelectric conversion signal; a comparator configured to compare a base signal based on the pixel at a reset state with a time-changing first reference signal, and for comparing an effective signal based on the pixel at a non-reset state with a time-changing second reference signal, wherein the second reference signal has a larger time-changing ratio than that of the second reference signal; a counter configured to count a first count value until an inversion of a magnitude relation between the base signal and the first reference signal, and configured to count a second count value until an inversion of a magnitude relation between the effective signal and the second reference signal; a correcting unit configured to correct a difference of resolutions of the first and second count values, and configured to correct a difference between the first and second count values corrected.

Claims17

Dependent claims

An imaging apparatus comprising:

a photoelectric conversion unit configured to generate an electric charge by a photoelectric conversion;
a selecting circuit configured to select a reference signal, according to a level of a signal based on the electric charge, from a plurality of reference signals including a first reference signal having a first time-changing ratio and a second reference signal having a second time-changing ratio larger than the first time-changing ratio;
a comparator configured to perform a first comparison operation of comparing a base signal and the first reference signal, and configured to perform a second comparison operation of comparing a signal based on the electric charge and the first or second reference signal output from the selecting circuit;
a counter configured to count a first count value until an inversion of a magnitude relation in the first comparison operation and configured to count a second count value until an inversion of a magnitude relation in the second comparison operation;
and
a correcting unit configured to correct a difference of resolutions of the first and second count values, when the second comparison operation is performed by comparing between the signal based on the electric charge and the second reference signal.

3 more elements

A driving method of an imaging apparatus comprising:

generating an electric charge based on a photoelectric conversion;
generating a signal based on the electric charge;
generating a plurality of reference signals including a first reference signal having a first time-changing ratio and a second reference signal having a second time-changing-ratio larger than the first time-changing ratio;
selecting a reference signal from the plurality of reference signals, according to a level of a signal based on the electric charge
performing a first comparison operation of comparing a base signal and the first reference signal;
performing a second comparison operation of comparing between the signal based on the electric charge and the first or second reference signal selected among the plurality of the reference signals by the selecting step;
counting a first count value until an inversion of a magnitude relation in the first comparison operation;
counting a second count value until an inversion of a magnitude relation in the second comparison operation;
and
correcting a difference of resolutions of the first and second count values, when the second comparison operation is performed by comparing the signal based on the electric charge and the second reference signal.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Imaging apparatus

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Imaging apparatus

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims17