Patent ID: 8411175

Claim:
A solid-state imaging device comprising: an imaging area including a plurality of pixels arrayed like a matrix and a plurality of pixel rows and columns; a plurality of vertical signal lines connected in common to a plurality of pixels of each pixel column, and reading pixel signals from the pixels of each pixel column; a vertical drive circuit configured to select a pixel row of the imaging area, and configured to supply a plurality of drive signals to each pixel of the selected pixel row so that a pixel signal is read from each pixel; an analog-to-digital converter circuit connected to the vertical signal lines, and configured to convert and output each of pixel signals read to the vertical signal lines into a digital signal; a horizontal drive circuit configured to receive and hold a signal digitized by the analog-to-digital converter circuit, and configured to successively output the held signal; and a signal processing circuit configured to receive a signal output from the horizontal drive circuit, and configured to extract the maximum signal level and the minimum signal level from signals of a plurality of pixels existing around a correction target pixel, and further, configured to execute defect corrections of the correction target pixel based on the maximum signal level and the minimum signal level and a signal of the correction target pixel, wherein the signal processing circuit includes: a signal level comparator circuit configured to extract the maximum signal level and the minimum signal level from signals of a plurality of pixels existing around the correction target pixel; and a defect correction circuit configured to receive the maximum signal level and the minimum signal level to compare each of the maximum signal level and the minimum signal level with a signal of the correction target pixel, and configured to determine whether or not the correction target pixel has a white defect or black defect, and further, configured to execute defect corrections on the correction target pixel according to the determined result, wherein the defect correction circuit is configured to replace a signal of the correction target pixel with a signal of a pixel having the maximum signal level or the minimum signal level to execute defect corrections.