Solid-state image sensing device
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsTomoya Yoneda, Toru Koizumi, Tetsunobu Kochi
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Abstract
An object of the invention is to control a saturation electric charge quantity of a photodiode within a chip, thereby to drive a solid-state image sensing device adequately. The solid-state image sensing device according to the present invention comprises the photodiode as a photo-electric converting device and an overflow drain device controlled corresponding to the saturation electric charge quantity of the photodiode, both of which are provided within the same chip.
Claims5
A solid-state image sensing device, comprising:
- a plurality of photo-electric converting devices;
- a memory in which information on saturation electric charge quantities of respective said plurality of photoelectric devices is stored;
- and
- an overflow drain device having a controlling terminal through which overflow drain level is controlled based on information stored in said memory, wherein:
- said plurality of photo-electric converting devices, said memory and said overflow drain device are formed within a single chip.
A solid-state image sensing device having a plurality of pixels, said plurality of pixels respectively comprising:
- a photo-electric converting device;
- a transfer switch for transferring an electric charge which is photo-electrically generated by said photo-electric converting device;
- a floating diffusion area which is the transfer target of said electric charge;
- and
- an amplifying part for amplifying a potential of said floating diffusion area, wherein:
- information on saturation electric charge quantities of respective photo-electric devices is stored in a memory;
- a gate electrode of said transfer switch employed as a control terminal having a lateral overflow drain structure is controlled based on information stored in said memory;
- and
- said plurality of pixels and said memory are formed within a single chip.
A solid-state image sensing device, comprising:
- a photo-electric converting device;
- an overflow drain device having a controlling terminal through which overflow drain level is controlled corresponding to said saturation electric charge quantity of said photo-electric converting device;
- a detecting circuit for detecting a saturation electric charge quantity of said photo-electric converting device, wherein said photo-electric converting device includes:
- a first region having a first conductive type;
- a second region having a second conductive type which is embedded in said first region;
- and
- a third region having said first conductive type between said second region and a surface of said photo-electric converting device, and
- said detection circuit including:
- a junction type transistor having said first region and said third region employed as control terminals;
- and
- said second region employed as a channel region, wherein:
- said detection circuit is the same structure as that of said photo-electric converting device and is formed within a single chip.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.