Invention Grant
- Patent Title: Solid-state image pickup device with plurality of converters
- Patent Title (中): 具有多个转换器的固态图像拾取装置
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Application No.: US13661724Application Date: 2012-10-26
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Publication No.: US09106859B2Publication Date: 2015-08-11
- Inventor: Shunsuke Kizuna , Katsumi Dosaka , Hiroto Utsunomiya
- Applicant: Renesas Electronics Corporation
- Applicant Address: JP Kanagawa
- Assignee: Renesas Electronics Corporation
- Current Assignee: Renesas Electronics Corporation
- Current Assignee Address: JP Kanagawa
- Agency: Foley & Lardner LLP
- Priority: JP2011-242099 20111104
- Main IPC: H04N3/14
- IPC: H04N3/14 ; H04N5/335 ; H04N5/378

Abstract:
A solid-state image pickup device includes a column ADC realizing higher precision and higher-speed conversion. Converters converts a signal of each pixels output via a corresponding vertical read line to a digital value by sequentially executing first to N-th (N: integer of three or larger) conversion stages. In the first to (N−1)th conversion stages, each converter determines a value of upper bits including the most significant bit of a digital value by comparing the voltage at a retention stage with a reference voltage while changing the voltage at a retention node. In the N-th conversion stage, each converter determines a value of remaining bits to the least significant bit by comparing the voltage at the retention node with the reference voltage while continuously changing the voltage at the retention node in a range of the voltage step in the (N−1)th conversion stage or a range exceeding the range.
Public/Granted literature
- US20130112852A1 SOLID-STATE IMAGE PICKUP DEVICE Public/Granted day:2013-05-09
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