A system including an image capture system with a sensing efficiency that varies over a field of view of the image capture system may employ shaped illumination to compensate for the variation in the sensing efficiency. An illuminator may be configured to illuminate the field of view of the image capture system with illumination shaped to have higher intensity where the sensing efficiency is lower, e.g., at the periphery of the field over view. The imaging system may thus provide image data with more uniform signal-to-noise ratios. Image data from an illuminated scene may be manipulated using data from a non-illuminated scene to produce improved image data.

An imaging system includes an image sensor configured to obtain first image data, based on a received light; and a processing circuit configured to determine an operating mode of the image sensor, among a first mode and a second mode, based on an illumination and a dynamic range corresponding to the obtained first image data. The image sensor includes a first sub-pixel configured to sense a target light corresponding to a target color, in the first mode, convert the target light sensed during a first exposure time, into a first signal, and in the second mode, convert the target light sensed during a second exposure time longer than the first exposure time, into a second signal.

Provided is an ADC in which a plurality of pixel signals input through a vertical signal line of a solid-state image pickup apparatus are held in advance using some capacitors among a plurality of capacitors within the ADC. A potential of a node is generated by the respective pixel signals held in the capacitors. Thereafter, the potential of the node is changed by changing the voltages of counter electrodes of the capacitors, and the digital values of the pixel signals are generated by comparing the potential of the node with a predetermined potential.

Systems and methods are described for a tetracell image sensor that performs diamond binning to process image data. An image sensor includes a pixel array and a converting circuit, where the pixel array includes pixel sets arranged in a row direction and a column direction, outputs a first signal generated from a first pixel set of the pixel sets, and outputs a second signal generated from a second pixel set of the pixel sets. The converting circuit performs binning based on the first signal and the second signal to generate a first binning signal. Each of the first pixel set and the second pixel set includes pixel sensors adjacent to each other, and the first pixel set and the second pixel set are located at different rows and different columns.

An RGBW image sensor, a binning method in an image sensor, and a computer readable medium for performing the method are provided, and the binning method in an image sensor includes selecting one or more binning target pixels for each of a red pixel, a green pixel, a blue pixel, and a white pixel, constituting a pixel array of an RGBW image sensor with a uniform array pattern, generating binning pixel data for each of the red pixel, the green pixel, the blue pixel, and the white pixel, based on pieces of pixel data corresponding to the binning target pixel, and rearranging pixels, represented by the binning pixel data, to be equal to the entirety or a portion of the uniform array pattern and to be equally spaced apart from each other.

An electronic device according to various embodiments of the present invention comprises an image sensor and a processor, wherein the image sensor comprises a microlens and a light-receiving sensor pixel capable of converting light having passed through the microlens into an electrical signal, the light-receiving sensor pixel comprises a first floating diffusion area and a second floating diffusion area, the light-receiving sensor pixel is set, as a first area and a second area having different sizes, in accordance with the activation of either the first floating diffusion area or the second floating diffusion area, a signal generated by the light-receiving sensor pixel can be classified and read out as a first signal corresponding to the first area and a second signal corresponding to the second area, and the processor can be set so as to: use the image sensor so as to activate the first floating diffusion area, thereby acquiring a first image of an external object; use the image sensor so as to activate the second floating diffusion area, thereby acquiring a second image of the external object; and synthesize at least a portion of the first image and at least a portion of the second image, thereby generating a third image having a resolution higher than that of the first or second image. Additional various embodiments are possible.

In an array of multi-color vertical detector color pixel sensors, a readout wiring architecture includes a transfer transistor for each individual color detector. In first and second rows in a first column, the first, second, and third color transfer transistor gates are coupled, respectively, to the first, second, and third row-select lines. In a first row in a second column, the first color transfer transistor gate is coupled to the second row-select line, the second color transfer transistor gate is coupled to the first row-select line, and the third color transfer transistor gate is coupled to the third row-select line. In a second row in the second column, the first color transfer transistor gate is coupled to the first row-select line, the second color transfer transistor gate is coupled to the third row-select line, and t the third color transfer transistor gate is coupled to the second row-select line.

An imaging device includes pixels each including a holding portion, and an output unit, and a control unit that controls readout of pixel signals. The pixels include first to fourth pixels that output signals based on light of first to fourth wavelength ranges. A first unit pixel includes the first and second pixels but no third pixel, which share the holding portion. A second unit pixel includes the first and third pixels but no second pixel, which share the holding portion. A third unit pixel includes the first and fourth pixels but neither second nor third pixel, which share the holding portion. The control unit reads, from the first unit pixel, a signal in which signals of the first and second pixels are added in the holding portion, and reads, from the third unit pixel, a signal in which signals of the first pixels are added in the holding portion.

Provided are: a color filter for an image sensor in which an infrared filter having no particulate defects or the like can be laminated adjacent to an image pickup element and in which the total thickness of an image sensor can be significantly reduced; an image sensor including the color filter for an image sensor; and a method of manufacturing the color filter for an image sensor. The color filter for an image sensor includes: two or more absorbing color filters that absorb light components having different wavelength ranges; and a cholesteric reflecting layer in which a right circularly polarized light cholesteric layer having right circularly polarized light reflecting properties and a left circularly polarized light cholesteric layer having left circularly polarized light reflecting properties are laminated.

An image-capturing device includes an infrared light source configured to emit infrared light, and a solid-state image-capturing device including a plurality of first pixels configured to convert visible light into signal charge and a plurality of second pixels configured to convert infrared light into signal charge, the plurality of first pixels and the plurality of second pixels being arranged on a semiconductor substrate in a matrix. The solid-state image-capturing device outputs, during the same single frame scanning period, a first signal obtained from the plurality of first pixels, a second signal obtained from the plurality of second pixels during a period of time when the infrared light is emitted, and a third signal obtained from the plurality of second pixels during a period of time when the infrared light is not emitted.