Patent ID: 9338383
Filing Date: 2016-05-10
CPC Classification: H01L,H04N

Claim Text:
1. A method for driving a solid-state imaging device including pixels arranged in a two-dimensional array of m columns in a horizontal scanning direction and n rows in a vertical scanning direction, where n is an integer no less than 2 and m is a natural number, wherein each of the pixels includes (i) a photoelectric converting unit which includes a photoelectric film, (ii) a charge accumulation unit which accumulates signal charges output from the photoelectric conversion unit, (iii) a selection transistor which reads out pixel signals associated with fluctuation in an amount of accumulated signal charges, and (iv) a reset transistor which starts or ends a reset operation to reset the signal charges in the charge accumulating unit, the method comprising: reading out pixel signals of the pixels sequentially from a first row to an n-th row in one frame; and ending a reset operation on pixels in an i-th row among the pixels when (i) a reset operation on pixels in an (i+1)-th row among the pixels is in progress or (ii) time elapsed from when the reset operation on the pixels in the (i+1)-th row is ended is less than one-frame capturing time, where i is an integer no less than 1 and no greater than (n−1), wherein the method further comprises, in the following order, (i) in an L-th frame, reading out pixel signals in the (i+1)-th row, (ii) in an (L+1)-th frame immediately following the L-th frame, starting the reset operation on the (i+1)-th row, (iii) in the (L+1)-th frame, starting the reset operation on the i-th row, (iv) in the (L+1)-th frame, ending the reset operation on the i-th row, and (v) in the (L+1)-th frame, reading out pixel signals in the i-th row, where L is a natural number.