VOLTAGE GENERATOR CIRCUIT, DIGITAL-TO-ANALOG CONVERTER, RAMP GENERATOR CIRCUIT, ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTER, IMAGE SENSOR SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR GENERATING VOLTAGE

摘要

A resistor-ladder voltage generator circuit is provided, which controls so that k switches among consecutive (k+1) switches out of a plurality of switches connected to the resistor ladder circuit are simultaneously set to an ON state, and which temporally switches the value of k. This allows voltage waveforms having different slopes to be arbitrarily obtained, ranging from a voltage waveform having a small slope to a voltage waveform having a large slope, thereby improving the resolution of a generated voltage waveform without increasing the numbers of resistors and switches, while A/D conversion time is not increased even if the number of bits is increased. In addition, by using this voltage generator circuit as a ramp generator circuit, and by dynamically switching the slope of the ramp wave, acceleration of an image sensor is achieved.