Patent ID: 7569820

Claim:
An infrared sensor comprising: an imaging area which infrared detection pixels are disposed on a semiconductor substrate, the imaging area including a row of thermal non-sensitivity pixels, a row of optical non-sensitivity pixels and a row of valid pixels detecting infrared, and including a column of optical non-sensitivity pixels in an area of the valid pixels row; row selection lines disposed in a row direction within the imaging area; signal lines disposed in a column direction within the imaging area; a row selecting circuit connected to the row selection lines; a column amplifier including a first coupling capacitor, a first amplifying transistor, a first clamp circuit, an integration capacitor and a resetting part, a gate of the first amplifying transistor, being connected to one of the signal lines via the first coupling capacitor, the first clamp circuit clamping a gate voltage of the first amplification transistor at a clamping voltage, the integration capacitor being connected to a drain of the first amplifying transistor, the resetting part being connected to the drain of the first amplifying transistor and a storage node of the integration capacitor, the column amplifier being connected to each of the signal lines and amplifying a signal voltage generated in the signal line; a column buffer, including a driving transistor, a source of the driving transistor being connected to a source of the first amplifying transistor; a reading circuit that is connected to the storage node of the integration capacitor, and reads an output signal from the column amplifier; and a signal generating circuit for the column of the optical non-sensitivity pixel, the signal generating circuit including a circuit configuration equivalent to that of the column amplifier, the circuit configuration including a second amplifying transistor equivalent to the first amplifying transistor, a gate of the second transistor being connected to a gate of the driving transistor.