Patent ID: 8570417

Claim:
A solid-state imaging device comprising: a pixel array section with a plurality of pixels arranged in a two-dimensional array with rows and columns, each pixel having a photoelectric conversion function of converting an optical signal into an electric signal, the pixel array being subdivided in to a plurality of groups of pixels; a pixel drive unit configured to control driving of the pixels in each selected group, the pixel drive unit having respective pixel drive lines associated with the pixels on a row basis; signal lines associated with the pixels on a column basis and configured to transport electric signals readout from selected pixels; a multiplexer circuit configured to select signal lines for readout of electric signals from the pixels; and a readout circuit including the multiplexer circuit, a horizontal scan circuit operative to drive the multiplexer circuit and a respective analog to digital circuit per pixel group configured to convert an analog signal received from the signal lines into a digital signal; wherein, at least the number of pixel drive lines wired in each row or the number of signal lines wired in each column is more than one, said pixel groups are formed of a plurality of the pixels in the pixel array section, the number of the plurality of the pixels being determined by the number of pixel drive lines wired in each row and the number of signal lines wired in each column, the pixels in each pixel group are connected to different lines of either the pixel drive lines or the signal lines, for each selected pixel group, the pixel drive unit sequentially drives the pixels in the pixel group at overlapping timings of a shifted phase to read out the analog signals through a corresponding one of the signal lines, for each selected group, the signal lines associated therewith are similarly selected by means of the multiplexer circuit with the timing of the shifted phase, for each selected pixel group, the analog-to-digital converter is configured to sequentially receive the electric signals read out from the pixel group via the plurality of the signal lines and sequentially convert the analog signals into digital signals, the analog-to-digital converter being a pipelined analog-to-digital converter including a plurality of stages, capable of sequentially receiving inputs, and capable of a pipelined operation so that while the analog-to-digital converter continues to process a given electric signal it receives a succeeding electric signal, the pixel drive unit sequentially shifts driving operations of the readout performed by the pixel drive lines by a time corresponding to a throughput of the analog-to-digital converter, and there is no sample and hold circuit between the pixel array and the analog to digital conversion units.