Solid-state imaging device

摘要

There is provided a solid-state imaging device capable of correcting a blackening phenomenon caused by intense light, with a small-scale circuit configuration. An AD converter 130 that performs sampling of an output voltage VS on a column signal line 111 includes a comparator 131 that compares the output voltage VS with a ramp-wave reference voltage during a sampling period; a judging circuit 132 that accepts as input an output from the comparator 131 and judges a voltage level of the output voltage VS; and a memory portion 133 that stores, as a digital value, a count value corresponding to the output voltage VS, based on an output from the judging circuit 132. The comparator 131 amplifies a voltage change of the output voltage VS obtained after a lapse of a reset period in which a voltage of a FD portion 103 in a pixel circuit 100 is reset, and the judging circuit 132 judges, based on the voltage change, whether light received by the pixel circuit 100 is intense light, during a predetermined detection period between the reset period and a period in which an output voltage Vrst obtained after the reset is sampled.

主权项

1. A solid-state imaging device that has a plurality of pixel circuits arranged in a matrix form in column and row directions and reads amounts of accumulated charge using a correlated double sampling method, the plurality of pixel circuits converting the amounts of accumulated charge into voltages by photoelectric conversion, and outputting the converted voltages to column signal lines, the solid-state imaging device comprising:
AD converters that convert the output voltages outputted to the column signal lines into digital values, wherein each of the AD converters includes:
a comparator that compares an output voltage which corresponds to one of the output voltages with a ramp-wave reference voltage during a sampling period in which the output voltages are sampled;a judging circuit that accepts as input an output from the comparator and judges a voltage level of the output voltage; anda memory portion that stores, as the digital value, a count value corresponding to the output voltage, based on an output from the judging circuit, the comparator compares the output voltage obtained after a lapse of a reset period in which a voltage of a floating diffusion portion in a pixel circuit which corresponds to one of the pixel circuits is reset, with a predetermined comparison voltage and amplifies a voltage difference between the output voltage and the comparison voltage, and the judging circuit judges whether light received by the pixel circuit is intense light, during a predetermined detection period between the reset period and a reset level sampling period in which the output voltage obtained after the reset is sampled as a reset level voltage, based on a slope of a voltage change when the output voltage changes toward the reset level voltage immediately after the reset period.