CMOS IMAGE SENSOR WITH SELF-DIAGNOSTIC LOGIC AND ITS DIAGNOSTIC METHOD

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a complementary metal oxide semiconductor CMOS image sensor that is driven by a low power. SOLUTION: The CMOS image sensor is provided with a control and external system interface 10 that uses a state machine to control the entire operation of the image sensor and that functions as an interface to an external system, a pixel array section 20 that has pixels reacting to a light to generate an electric signal so as to sense information with respect to an externally received image, an A/D converter 30 that converts an analog voltage sensed by each pixel into a digital voltage to be processed in the digital system, and a diagnostic logic section 50 that diagnoses whether or not the control and external system interface and the A/D converter are normally in operation.