Solid state image sensor, method for driving a solid state image sensor, imaging apparatus, and electronic device

Abstract

A solid state image sensor includes a pixel array, as well as charge-to-voltage converters, reset gates, and amplifiers each shared by a plurality of pixels in the array. The voltage level of the reset gate power supply is set higher than the voltage level of the amplifier power supply. Additionally, charge overflowing from photodetectors in the pixels may be discarded into the charge-to-voltage converters. The image sensor may also include a row scanner configured such that, while scanning a row in the pixel array to read out signals therefrom, the row scanner resets the charge in the photodetectors of the pixels sharing a charge-to-voltage converter with pixels on the readout row. The charge reset is conducted simultaneously with or prior to reading out the signals from the pixels on the readout row.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.