Imaging sensor, imaging apparatus, and imaging method
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorKenzo Tojima
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a case where illuminance is high, an error between the number of photons per frame calculated from time information and the number of photons and the actually expected number of photons per frame is reduced. In a time counter that counts a clock from the start of exposure in one frame, one-count time in the clock is switched depending on the illuminance. In a case where a pixel counter is saturated within a period of one frame, the illuminance is determined to be high, and a high-illuminance clock in which one-count time is set more minutely in the first half of one frame is used to count. In a case where the illuminance is not determined to be high, a normal clock is used to count.
Claims16
A sensor in which a pixel including a conversion unit configured to detect incidence of a photon and a processing unit configured to process a pulse generated by photon detection in the conversion unit are arranged two-dimensionally, the sensor comprising:
- a time counter configured to count a clock from a start of exposure in one frame;
- a pixel counter configured to count a number of pulses from the start of exposure in the one frame;
- a determination unit configured to determine whether a counter value of the pixel counter reaches a threshold within the one frame;
- and
- a selector configured to switch the clock according to a result of determination by the determination unit.
A method in a sensor in which a pixel including a conversion unit configured to detect incidence of a photon and a processing unit configured to process a pulse generated by photon detection in the conversion unit are arranged two-dimensionally, the method comprising:
- counting a clock by a time counter from a start of exposure in one frame;
- counting a number of pulses by a pixel counter from the start of exposure in the one frame;
- determining whether a count value of the pixel counter reaches a threshold within the one frame;
- and
- switching the clock supplied to the time counter in a case where it is determined that the threshold is reached.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.