Solid-state imaging device that adjusts frequency of a clock to change a gain of a counter to a determined gain
AssigneePanasonic Corporation
InventorsMasashi Murakami, Kenichi Shimomura
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A solid-state imaging device comprises a pixel array; a reference signal generation unit operable to generate a reference signal that changes monotonically for a predetermined period in a horizontal period; a comparator operable to compare the level of a pixel signal with the level of a reference signal; a counter operable to count input clock pulses; a memory operable to store the number of counts counted by the counter as a digital value; and a timing control unit operable to generate a clock that is to be input into the counter, and change frequency of the clock that is to be input into the counter based on external input data.
Claims17
A solid-state imaging device comprising:
- a pixel array in which a plurality of pixels are arranged in rows and columns;
- a reference signal generation unit configured to generate a reference signal for each of horizontal periods, the reference signal changing monotonically for a predetermined period included in each of the horizontal periods;
- comparators that are arranged in correspondence with the columns of the pixel array, each of the comparators being configured to compare a level of a pixel signal output from a pixel in the corresponding column with a level of the reference signal;
- a counter configured to count input clock pulses;
- and
- a clock control unit configured to generate a clock that is to be input into the counter, and change frequency of the clock based on external input data, wherein
- the clock control unit changes the frequency of the clock in a manner that gain of the counter is changed to determined gain.
A solid-state imaging device comprising:
- a pixel array in which a plurality of pixels are arranged in rows and columns;
- a counter configured to count input clock pulses;
- a clock control unit configured to generate a clock that is to be input into the counter, and change frequency of the clock based on external input data;
- and
- a plurality of analog-digital conversion units that are arranged in correspondence with the columns of the pixel array, each of the analog-digital conversion units being configured to obtain, for each pixel in a corresponding column, a number of counts as a digital value of a pixel signal output from a pixel in the corresponding column, the number of counts being counted by the counter during a period whose length is determined in accordance with an analog value of the pixel signal, wherein
- the clock control unit changes the frequency of the clock in a manner that gain of the counter is changed to determined gain.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.