Solid-state imaging device and driving method therefor
AssigneeSony Corporation
InventorsKeiji Mabuchi, Toshifumi Wakano, Ken Koseki
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A solid-state imaging device in which the potential of a signal line, which is obtained before a pixel has an operating period, is fixed to an intermediate potential between a first power-supply potential and a second power-supply potential.
Claims7
A method for driving a solid-state imaging device including pixels arranged in a two-dimensional array with rows and columns, with a signal line provided in each column, each pixel including a photoelectric conversion element and a group of transistors for selectively transferring signal charges from the photoelectric conversion element to the signal line and for resetting a floating diffusion of the pixel, the group of transistors including a reset transistor connected between the floating diffusion and a drain driving wire connected to a drain of the reset transistor, the reset transistor controlling a potential of the floating diffusion, the method comprising the steps of:
- before a pixel has an operating period, (a) fixing a potential of the signal line to an intermediate potential between a relatively higher first power-supply potential and a relatively lower second power-supply potential;
- and
- after the pixel operating period, returning a potential of the drain driving wire from an inactive level to an active level,
- wherein,
- the signal line is coupled to the intermediate potential by means of a transistor other than transistors within transistor groups of pixels along the column, and
- a threshold voltage of the reset transistor is set to be lower than a threshold voltage of a transistor used in a peripheral circuit for the pixel array.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.