Solid-state imaging apparatus and driving method for solid-state imaging apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorKazuhiro Sonoda
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
When a solid-state imaging apparatus which has A/D conversion circuits in every column and subjects a digitized signal to arithmetic processing carries out a horizontal skipping operation and calculates respective signals held in a plurality of register circuits, an A/D converter and a register circuit in a column which is skipped, specifically, is not read out, do not participate in the operation, so that the circuit has been susceptible to investigation in terms of use efficiency. The solid-state imaging apparatus has a unit for connecting a register circuit in a certain column with a register circuit in a different column.
Claims10
A solid-state imaging apparatus comprising:
- a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix, wherein each of the pixels converts an incident light into an analog electric signal, and outputs the analog electric signal;
- A/D converters arranged each corresponding to one column of the plurality of pixels, for converting the analog electric signal from the pixel into a digital signal and for outputting the digital signal from an output terminal of the A/D converter;
- register circuits each arranged corresponding to one column of the plurality of pixels, for receiving by an input terminal thereof the digital signal output from the output terminal of the A/D converter, and for holding the digital signal received;
- a connecting unit for selectively effecting connection of the output terminal of the A/D converter arranged correspondingly to one column of the pixels to the input terminal of the register circuit arranged correspondingly to another column of the pixels, and connection of the output terminal of the register circuit arranged correspondingly to the one column of the pixels to the input terminal of the register circuit arranged correspondingly to the other column of the pixels;
- and
- color filters, each arranged correspondingly to one of the pixels.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.