US 8,427,564 B2Granted

Driving method for solid-state imaging apparatus, and image system

AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha

InventorsYuichiro Yamashita, Yusuke Onuki

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Abstract

A driving method of a solid-state imaging apparatus includes a first driving mode wherein a start and an end of an operation of accumulating an electric charge in a pixel are set commonly to a plurality of rows of pixels, and a second driving mode wherein a start and an end of an operation of accumulating the electric charge in the pixel are set commonly to pixels in each one of the rows of the pixels. In the first driving mode, during a time period of reading out a signal from the pixels in one of the rows, a potential barrier formed in a first transferring portion is higher than a potential barrier formed in a third transferring portion for the plurality of rows of the pixels, while in the second driving mode, during a time period of reading out a signal from the pixels in one of the rows, a potential barrier formed in the first transferring portion is lower than a potential of a photoelectric converting portion, and a potential barrier formed in a second transferring portion is lower than a potential of an accumulating portion.

Claims13

Dependent claims

A driving method of a solid-state imaging apparatus, wherein the solid-state imaging apparatus includes a pixel portion with a plurality of pixels arranged in rows and columns, each of the pixels including:

a photoelectric converting portion for photoelectrically converting an incident light;
a first transferring portion for connecting the photoelectric converting portion to an accumulating portion for accumulating an electric charge;
a second transferring portion for connecting the accumulating portion to a floating diffusion portion;
a reset portion for connecting the floating diffusion portion to a first power source;
and
a third transferring portion for connecting the photoelectric converting portion to a second power source,
such that, at least, during a time period of accumulating the electric charge in a pixel, a potential barrier formed in the first transferring portion for holding the electric charge accumulated in the accumulating portion is lower than a potential barrier formed in the third transferring portion,
wherein the driving method comprises the steps of:
setting, in a first driving mode, a start and an end of an operation of accumulating the electric charge in the pixel commonly to a plurality of rows of the pixels;
and
setting, in a second driving mode, a start and an end of an operation of accumulating the electric charge in the pixel commonly to pixels in each one of the rows of the pixels such that,
setting in the first driving mode, during a time period of reading out a signal from the pixels in one of the rows, a potential barrier formed in the first transferring portion to be higher than a potential barrier formed in the third transferring portion for the plurality of rows of the pixels, while
setting in the second driving mode, during a time period of reading out a signal from the pixels in one of the rows, the potential barrier formed in the first transferring portion to be lower than a potential of the photoelectric converting portion, and setting a potential barrier formed in the second transferring portion to be lower than a potential of the accumulating portion.

10 more elements

An imaging system comprising:

a solid-state imaging apparatus including a pixel portion with a plurality of pixels each including:
a photoelectric converting portion for photoelectrically converting an incident light,
a first transferring portion for connecting the photoelectric converting portion to an accumulating portion for accumulating an electric charge,
a second transferring portion for connecting the accumulating portion to a floating diffusion portion,
a reset portion for connecting the floating diffusion portion to a first power source, and
a third transferring portion for connecting the photoelectric converting portion to a second power source,
such that, at least, during a time period of accumulating the electric charge in a pixel, a potential barrier formed in the first transferring portion for holding the electric charge accumulated in the accumulating portion is lower than a potential barrier formed in the third transferring portion;
and
a controlling unit outputting a control signal for controlling the solid-state imaging apparatus to perform:
a first driving mode wherein a start and an end of an operation of accumulating the electric charge in the pixel are set commonly to a plurality of rows of the pixels, and
a second driving mode wherein a start and an end of an operation of accumulating the electric charge in the pixel are set commonly to pixels in each one of the rows of the pixels such that,
in the first driving mode, during a time period of reading out a signal from the pixels in one of the rows, a potential barrier formed in the first transferring portion is higher than a potential barrier formed in the third transferring portion for the plurality of rows of the pixels, while
in the second driving mode, during a time period of reading out a signal from the pixels in one of the rows, the potential barrier formed in the first transferring portion is lower than a potential of the photoelectric converting portion and a potential barrier formed in the second transferring portion is lower than a potential of the accumulating portion.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 12/866,807Filed 13 Mar 2009
Priority: JP 2008-09155431 Mar 2008
Published: US 2011/0025896 A13 Feb 2011
Granted: 23 Apr 2013
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification6 codes

H04N 25/531
Control of the integration time: by controlling rolling shutters in CMOS SSIS
H04N 25/00
Circuitry of solid-state image sensors [ssis]
H04N 25/42
Extracting pixel data from image sensors by controlling scanning circuits, e.g. by modifying the number of pixels sampled or to be sampled: by…
H04N 25/53
Control of the SSIS exposure: control of the integration time