Imager which has a load transistor connected to each vertical signal line and wherein each load transistor comprises two field transistors connected in series
AssigneeSony Corporation
InventorMasaharu Hamasaki
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention is directed to a CCD image sensing device in which an amplifying transistor for amplifying a photoelectrically-converted signal charge and outputting the amplified signal charge to a vertical signal line is provided at every pixel of a plurality of pixels arrayed in a two-dimensional fashion and a load transistor is connected to each of the vertical signal lines, in which the load transistor is composed of a first field effect transistor having a constant current characteristic and a second field effect transistor acting as a negative feedback resistor function connected in series.
Claims6
A CCD image sensing device in which an amplifying transistor for amplifying photoelectrically-converted signal charges and outputting the amplified signal to one of a plurality of vertical signal lines is provided at every pixel of a plurality of pixels arrayed in a two-dimensional fashion and load means is connected to each of said plurality of vertical signal lines and selectively connected as a load of said amplifying transistor, in which said load means consists of:
- (a) a first field effect transistor having a constant current characteristic;
- and
- (b) a second field effect transistor connected in series with said first field effect transistor and acting to provide linear operation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.