Patent ID: 7176911
Filing Date: 2007-02-13
Classification: H01L,H04N

Abstract:
1. A solid-state imaging device comprising: a pixel unit constituted by a two-dimensional array of pixels for generating charge in correspondence to received light and accumulating the charge for a predetermined period of time; a vertical transfer unit for vertically transferring charge from the pixels in the pixel unit, a horizontal transfer unit for horizontally transferring charge from the vertical transfer unit; shift gates each provided between each pixel and the vertical transfer unit for reading out the charge in the pixels to the vertical transfer unit, gate electrodes for controlling the shift gates; and a plurality of lead lines for connecting the gate electrodes to an external circuit and a plurality of connection terminals for connecting the gate electrodes to the external circuit, the gate electrodes making up N of gate electrode groups in which the lines belonging to each coset of modulo N within successive pixel rows are connected to common lead lines, N being a predetermined natural number between 4 and one half the number of pixels in a column, and N also being the minimum periodic unit of connections from said gate electrodes having the same modulo N value and belonging to different gate electrode groups to said connection terminals within said successive pixel rows, the gate electrode groups having common connection terminals to (i) reduce the number of the connection terminals to less than N, and (ii) enable the gate electrodes having common connection terminals to be controlled with different timing from the timing of non-common connection terminals of the gate electrode groups.