Patent ID: 8243179

Claim:
A solid-state image capturing apparatus comprising: a pixel area in which pixels for generating a signal charge by a photoelectric conversion on an incident light are arranged in a two dimensional matrix; a row selection section for selecting each pixel row of the pixel area, and successively outputting a pixel value of each pixel of a pixel row selected by the row selection section; a plurality of column signal lines provided for each pixel column in the pixel area; and a signal processing circuit for generating a digital pixel value from an analog pixel signal of each pixel that is read out to each of the column signal lines, said signal processing circuit comprising: a first AD conversion circuit that simultaneously AD converts a long time exposure analog pixel signal, which corresponds to a signal charge obtained by long time exposure, from each pixel of the selected pixel row into a long time exposure digital pixel value; and a second AD conversion circuit that simultaneously AD converts a short time exposure analog pixel signal, which corresponds to a signal charge obtained by short time exposure, from each pixel of the selected pixel row into a short time exposure digital pixel value; wherein the row selection section selects each pixel row such that: the long time exposure analog pixel signal and the short time exposure analog pixel signal are read out as the analog pixel signal from each pixel row to a column signal line corresponding to each pixel within one frame period; and in a horizontal period corresponding to each pixel row, the long time exposure analog pixel signal is read out from each pixel of one pixel row to a corresponding column signal line within a first horizontal blanking period, and the short time exposure analog pixel signal is read out from each pixel of other pixel row adjacent to the one pixel row, to a corresponding column signal line within a second horizontal blanking period subsequent to the first horizontal blanking period; wherein the first AD conversion circuit performs an AD conversion on the long time exposure analog pixel signal, which is read out to the column signal line within the first horizontal blanking period, within a remaining signal processing period subsequent to the second horizontal blanking period within the horizontal period corresponding to each pixel row; and the second AD conversion circuit performs an AD conversion on the short time exposure analog pixel signal, which is read out to the column signal line within the second horizontal blanking period, within the remaining signal processing period in parallel with the AD conversion on the long time exposure analog pixel signal in the first AD conversion circuit.