SOLID-STATE IMAGE PICKUP DEVICE, ANALOG-DIGITAL CONVERTER, AND ANALOG DIGITAL CONVERSION METHOD

摘要

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a solid-state image pickup device, an AD converter, and an AD conversion method, for performing conversion without enlarging a region occupied by a circuit and increasing noise included in a signal in AD conversion. Ž<P>SOLUTION: The solid-state image pickup device has an analog-digital conversion part which is connected to a light receiving surface where pixels generating an analog signal in accordance with a received light amount concentrate are accumulated and the pixels. The analog-digital conversion part has: an region division part (GDC) for dividing a signal range of an analog signal into many regions in accordance with signal intensity of the analog signal; a programmable gain amplifier part (PGA) for generating high order bit digital signals corresponding to the respective regions and amplifying the analog signals with gains different from region to region; a lower bit digital signal generation part (ADC) for digitizing the analog signals amplified by gains different every region and generating lower bit digital signals; and an entire digital signal generation part (ODB) for generating an entire digital signal from the high order bit digital signal and the lower bit digital signal. Ž<P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT Ž