Patent Abstract:
A processing apparatus having a drive pulse generator circuit for generating a drive pulse to be supplied to an image pickup element, and a wave form data supply circuit for supplying wave form setting data for generating the drive pulse to the drive pulse generator circuit at each horizontal line, wherein the wave form setting data includes a wave form setting data to be set at each horizontal line and wave form setting data sharing a setting area.

Full Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0002]    The present invention relates to a processing apparatus for an image pickup element.  
           [0003]    2. Related Background Art  
           [0004]    A conventional method for driving an area type solid image pickup element is achieved in the manner illustrated in FIG. 6. An area image pickup element  101  is supplied with horizontal transfer pulses from a timing generator  909  and vertical transfer pulses via a vertical driver  105 . An image picked-up signal is read out from the area image pickup element  101  and then supplied to an analog front end  103 . The analog front end  103  sequentially performs correlated double sampling, gain adjustment and A/D conversion and supplies the processed result to a digital signal processor (DSP)  905 . The digital signal processor  905  generates an image signal constituted of a luminance signal and color difference signals, from the supplied digital signals, and outputs the generated signal to an external via a terminal  107 . The digital signal processor  905  operates in response to a clock generated by the timing generator  909 , and generates HD/VD pulses of NTSC or PAL to return them to the timing generator  909 . The timing generator  909  establishes frame synchronization by generating various read pulses for the area image pickup element  101  in accordance with the HD/VD pulses.  
           [0005]    A conventional timing generator is designed only for each area image pickup element  101  and therefore is not compatible with other types of area image pickup elements. The timing generator is also required to be designed so as to handle not only a moving image taking mode but also a still image taking mode and a monitoring mode, in case that the image pickup element has the latter two modes in addition to the moving image taking mode. If there is any change in combination of image taking modes, it is necessary to redesign a timing generator, resulting in a high cost.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0006]    An object of the invention is to provide a processing apparatus capable of flexibly changing the driving timings for an image pickup element.  
           [0007]    In order to attain this object, according to an embodiment of the present invention, a processing apparatus comprises a drive pulse generator circuit for generating a drive pulse to be supplied to an image pickup element and a wave form data supply circuit for supplying wave form setting data for generating the drive pulse to the drive pulse generator circuit at each horizontal line, wherein the wave form setting data includes a wave form setting data to be set at each horizontal line and wave form setting data sharing a setting area.  
           [0008]    Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0009]    [0009]FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a driving method and system to which the present invention is applied.  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the details of a timing generator unit  111 .  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating how a wave form generator circuit  225  generates a wave form.  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating CMD data.  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the structure of circuits for generating a wave form, the circuits being built in a DSP  109 .  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the structure of a conventional processing apparatus; 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0015]    [0015]FIG. 1 is a diagram which best shows the features of this invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral  100  denotes an optical lens. An area image pickup element  101  is supplied, as will be later detailed, with horizontal transfer pulses H 1  and H 2  and a reset gate pulse RG from a timing generator unit  111  and with vertical transfer pulses V 1 , V 2 , V 3  and V 4  from the timing generator unit  111  via a vertical driver  105 . A signal picked up by the area image pickup element  101  are supplied to an analog front end  103  to be subjected to correlated double sampling (CDS), gain adjustment (AGC) and A/D conversion, in a manner similar to conventional techniques. This digitalized image signal is supplied to a digital signal processor (DSP)  109 . Similar to a conventional manner, DSP  109  generates an image signal constituted of a luminance signal and color difference signals and outputs it to an external via a terminal  107 . The DSP  109  shares a roll of generating various wave forms together with the timing generator unit  111 .  
         [0016]    The details of the timing generator unit  111  are shown in FIG. 2. Reference numeral  201  denotes an input terminal at which a command (hereinafter abbreviated to CMD) supplied from the DSP  109  is received. Reference numeral  203  denotes an input terminal at which a horizontal timing signal (hereinafter abbreviated to HD) supplied from the DSP  109  is received. Reference numerals  205  and  226  denote a wave form generation block. Reference numeral  207  denotes a horizontal counter, reference numeral  209  denotes a decoder for decoding an output of the horizontal counter  207 , reference numeral  221  denotes a decoder for decoding the highest level area of a CMD input, and reference numeral  222  denotes AND circuits. The wave form generation block  205  is constituted of registers  211  and  213  and a wave form generation circuit  215 . Similarly, the wave form generation block  226  is constituted of registers  223  and  224  and a wave form generation circuit  225 . The wave form generation block  205  generates the wave form of a vertical transfer pulse VX 1 . Similar blocks having the same internal structure as that of the block  226  are also provided for generating the wave forms of remaining four-phase vertical transfer pulses VX 2 , VX 3  and VX 4 , sensor gate pulses SG 1  and SG 3  to be applied to the vertical transfer pulse, a PBLK pulse designating a pre-blanking portion (a mask-timing portion for blocking the horizontal transfer pulse near in the area where the vertical transfer pulse is generated), an OB pulse designating an optical black portion and a DM pulse designating a dummy pixel. These signal wave forms differ greatly depending upon an operation mode such as blanking and normal transferring. The wave form setting data is required as CMD at each horizontal period.  
         [0017]    The wave form generation block  226  generates the wave form of the horizontal transfer pulse H 1 . Similar blocks having the same internal structure as that of the wave form generation block  226  are also provided for generating the wave forms of a remaining two-phase horizontal transfer pulse H 2 , correlated double sampling pulses SHP and SHD, a reset gate pulse RG for supplying a reference voltage of the image pickup element  101 , and an ADCLK to be used for A/D conversion at the analog front end AFE  103 . Since the internal structure of each of these blocks is the same as that of the wave form generation block  226 , the description thereof is omitted. These signal wave forms are maintained constant irrespective of the operation mode such as blanking and normal transferring.  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 4 is a diagram showing CMD data which is output starting at the trailing edge of the HD signal. Wave form setting data  401  to  409  are sequentially supplied in the order shown in FIG. 4. Reference numeral  401  denotes an area where flags  411  to  416  to be described later are selectively output at each horizontal synchronization. Reference numerals  402  to  410  denote data fields where signals XV 1 , XV 2 , XV 3 , XV 4 , SG 1 , SG 3 , PBLK, OB and DM are set respectively. The decoder  209  decodes the data in the data fields  401  to  409 . Reference numerals  411  to  416  denote the flags “0” to “5” which are set to the upper (left) area and indicate the types of wave forms to be set. The flags “0” to “5” are used for H 1 , H 2 , SHP, SHD, RG and ADCLK, respectively. The decoder  221  decodes this upper area.  
         [0019]    Referring to FIG. 4, the horizontal counter  207  is reset at the trailing edge of the HD signal input to the terminal  203 , and counts up in response to each clock DCLK. The value of the horizontal counter are supplied to the decoder  209 , wave form generation block  205  and AND circuits  222 .  
         [0020]    As to the area  401 , the decoder  209  outputs DECO having a value “1” to the AND circuits  222  to release the masking of DECA to DECB. For example, when the flag  411  is set to the area  401 , the decoder  221  outputs DECA so that the CMD data (H 1 _set) is written in the register  223  via the AND circuit  222 . In response to the next HD trailing edge, the value in the register  223  is written in the register  224  to make the wave form generation circuit  225  generate the H 1  waveform.  
         [0021]    The operation of generating each wave form is illustrated in FIG. 3. Reference numeral  302  denotes a trailing edge of the horizontal blanking signal. In response to this trailing edge, the wave form generation circuit  225  outputs an initial value. In the present embodiment, “1” is set to the initial value. Reference numeral  305  denotes a change point  1  upon which the contents of CMD[A] are reflected, and the wave form is inverted at this point  1 . Similarly, reference numeral  306  denotes a change point  2  upon which the contents of CMD[A] are reflected, and the wave form is inverted again at this point  2 . By repeating such an operation a plurality of times, a necessary wave form can be generated. If the number of change points is set to 0 or a greater value, a wave form not changing during the horizontal period can obviously be generated. Two change points per one horizontal period are sufficient for the mask pulse of the sensor gate pulse or horizontal transfer pulse.  
         [0022]    The wave form generation circuit  225  is supplied with the count value from the horizontal counter  207  and with the initial value of a waveform to be described later and several change points (in this case, the change point  1  and change point  2 ) from the register  224 . When the count value of the horizontal counter  207  takes “0”, the wave form generation circuit  225  outputs the initial value. When the values of the change point  1  and horizontal counter become equal, the wave form generation circuit  225  inverts its output value. Similarly, when the values of the change point  2  and horizontal counter become equal, the wave form generation circuit  225  inverts its output value again. In this case, since the output is assumed to be a binary value, the same value is output when the level is inverted by even times.  
         [0023]    For the vertical pulse VX 1 , i.e., for the area  402 , the decoder  209  outputs DEC 1  having a value “1” to the wave form generation block  205 . Similar to the wave form generation block  226 , the wave form generation block  205  writes the CMD data in the register  211  and writes it in the register  213  in response to the trailing edge of HD to make the wave form generation circuit  215  generate the waveform of VX 1 . The change points are prepared as many as necessary because the wave forms of vertical pulses (VX 1 , VX 2 , VX 3  and VX 4 ) and the like are complicated.  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 5 shows the structure of wave form generating circuits built in DSP  109 . Reference numeral  501  denotes an input terminal to which the clock DCLK is input, reference numeral  503  denotes a vertical counter, reference numeral  505  denotes a horizontal counter, reference numeral  509  denotes a switch, reference numeral  511  denotes a command output terminal, reference numeral  513  denotes an HD output terminal, reference numeral  515  denotes an address generation unit, reference numeral  517  denotes a microcomputer bus, reference numerals  519 ,  521  and  531  denote memories, reference numeral  532  denotes a switch and reference numeral  533  denotes a CPU. The vertical counter  503  and horizontal counter  505  are used for generating timings at which a two-dimensional image is read out from the area image pickup element  101 . The count values of these two counters are supplied to the address generation unit  515 . In accordance with the count values of the vertical and horizontal counters, the address generation unit  515  generates addresses and supplies them to the memories  519 ,  521  and  531 . An output of the vertical counter  503  is inverted at each frame and applied to the switch  509  to alternately switch among the memories  519  and  521 . The switch  509  is connected to one input terminal of the switch  532 , and the other input terminal of the switch  532  is connected to an output terminal of the memory  531 . In accordance with the count value of the horizontal counter  505 , an output of the memory  531  is selected for the area  401  (FIG. 4) and the output of the switch  509  is selected for the other areas. In this manner, the CMD data is output to the CMD output terminal  511 .  
         [0025]    The horizontal counter  405  also generates the HD signal and outputs it to the terminal  513 .  
         [0026]    As shown in FIG. 3, at the terminals  511  and  513 , CMD is output at the trailing edge of the horizontal blanking signal, and this output operation is terminated after the necessary number of CMDs is output. By terminating CMD near in the horizontal blanking period, it is possible to suppress minimally CMD data from leaking into an output of the area image pickup element to become noise sources.  
         [0027]    With this arrangement described above, data of wave form data to be generated in the next frame is written in advance in one of the memories  519  and  521  presently not selected by the switch  509 . At the next frame, the switch  509  is turned to the side of the thus-written wave form data. Data may be written in the memory  531  during the initial sequence such as a power-on or in each image pickup mode.  
         [0028]    In the manner described above, the initial value for each of all wave forms to be generated during the horizontal period and the wave form data for predetermined number of change points for each waveform are read out and supplied to the wave form generation block  205  via the output terminal  511  and input terminal  201 .  
         [0029]    As described so far, the wave form data to be generated is loaded in the register  211  during the previous horizontal period. The memories of large scale is provided on the side of DSP  109  which is driven at a low voltage in a later process of the operation sequence, and only the horizontal counter is provided on the side of the timing generator unit  111  for generating drive pulses of the area image pickup element. It is therefore possible to flexibly deal with change of the area image pickup element, resulting in a reduction in development cost of a DSP and a timing generator unit.  
         [0030]    Data for the next frame is written in the memories  519 ,  521  and  531 , and during the next horizontal period, the next wave form data is written in advance in the timing generator unit  111  via DSP  109 . With this arrangement, a versatile timing generator can be configured irrespective of the type of an area image pickup element. Even if a moving image pickup mode, a still image pickup mode and a monitor mode are all used, any one of these modes can be realized easily only by sequentially changing data to be written in the memories  519 ,  521  and  531 .  
         [0031]    For a versatile timing generator, a large amount of setting data is required in order to flexibly deal with a change in mode or timing, and it may happen in the worst case that the data may not be written within the horizontal blanking but may require the effective image area to be written, so that the image quality is degraded. According to the invention, however, wave form setting data which changes in the unit of line and data which does not change in the unit of line are used separately. The latter data shares the area of wave form setting values, so that it is possible to reduce the number of wave form setting data to be transferred in the unit of horizontal synchronization (line), thereby achieving to send necessary wave form setting values within a short horizontal blanking period. The invention is particularly effective for a versatile timing generator which requires to send a large number of wave form setting values.  
         [0032]    Many widely different embodiments of the present invention may be constructed without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. It should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described in the specification, except as defined in the appended claims.

Technology Classification (CPC): 7