A plurality of kinds of color filters are disposed at each of pixels in accordance with a color array of two rows and two columns at a pixel section of a solid state imaging device. A first signal outputting circuit and a second signal outputting circuit each perform an addition read of electrical signals from the pixels of one/the other color included in a line to be read. An addition controlling circuit shifts sampling positions of the pixels which are added at a time of the addition read by a unit of the color array between the first signal outputting circuit and a second signal outputting circuit.

Disclosed is an image sensor. The image sensor includes an active pixel sensor array including first to fourth pixel units sequentially arranged in a column direction, and each of the first to fourth pixel units is composed of a plurality of pixels. A first pixel group including the first and second pixel units is connected to a first column line, and a second pixel group including the third pixel unit and the fourth pixel unit is connected to a second column line. The image sensor includes a correlated double sampling circuit including first and second correlated double samplers and configured to convert a first sense voltage sensed from a selected pixel of the first pixel group and a second sense voltage sensed from a selected pixel of the second pixel group into a first correlated double sampling signal and a second correlated double sampling signal, respectively.

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.

In an array containing rows and columns of multi-color vertical detector color pixel sensors disposed in a rows and columns of the array, a readout wiring architecture includes a plurality of row-select lines for each row of the array, equal to the number of colors in the vertical detector color pixel sensors, an individual column line for each column, a transfer transistor for each individual color detector coupled between a color detector and a column line associated with the column in which the color detector is disposed. Each transfer transistor has a gate coupled to one of the plurality of row-select lines in a row in which the vertical detector color pixel sensor is disposed. The gates of at least some of the transfer transistors in each row for each color detector in adjacent columns of the array are coupled to different ones of the row-select lines for that row.

In an array containing rows and columns of multi-color vertical detector color pixel sensors disposed in a rows and columns of the array, a readout wiring architecture includes a plurality of row-select lines for each row of the array, equal to the number of colors in the vertical detector color pixel sensors, an individual column line for each column, a transfer transistor for each individual color detector coupled between a color detector and a column line associated with the column in which the color detector is disposed. Each transfer transistor has a gate coupled to one of the plurality of row-select lines in a row in which the vertical detector color pixel sensor is disposed. The gates of at least some of the transfer transistors in each row for each color detector in adjacent columns of the array are coupled to different ones of the row-select lines for that row.

Pixel binning is performed by summing charge from some pixels positioned diagonally in a pixel array. Pixel signals output from pixels positioned diagonally in the pixel array may be combined on the output lines. A signal representing summed charge produces a binned 21 cluster. A signal representing combined voltage signals produces a binned 21 cluster. A signal representing summed charge and a signal representing combined pixel signals can be combined digitally to produce a binned 22 pixel. Orthogonal binning may be performed on other pixels in the pixel array by summing charge on respective common sense regions and then combining the voltage signals that represent the summed charge on respective output lines.

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.

Disclosed is an image sensor. The image sensor includes an active pixel sensor array including first to fourth pixel units sequentially arranged in a column direction, and each of the first to fourth pixel units is composed of a plurality of pixels. A first pixel group including the first and second pixel units is connected to a first column line, and a second pixel group including the third pixel unit and the fourth pixel unit is connected to a second column line. The image sensor includes a correlated double sampling circuit including first and second correlated double samplers and configured to convert a first sense voltage sensed from a selected pixel of the first pixel group and a second sense voltage sensed from a selected pixel of the second pixel group into a first correlated double sampling signal and a second correlated double sampling signal, respectively.

Provided is an endoscope system that maintains the hue of an endoscopic image even in a case where a wavelength shift occurs in light for observation. An endoscope system includes a light source unit including at least one first light source that emits light including two color components with mutually different wavelengths; an image sensor having at least a first element part that has a spectral sensitivity for a first color component and a second element part that has a spectral sensitivity for the second color component out of the two color components of the first light source; and a processor that images an observation object using the light emitted from the at least one first light source of the light source unit and obtains a first signal value of the first color component obtained in the first element part of the image sensor, and a second signal value of the second color component obtained in the second element part. The processor calculates a signal ratio between the first signal value and the second signal value, and sets the signal ratio to a predetermined set value by changing at least one signal value out of the first signal value and the second signal value.

An imaging device including an electronic shutter and a pixel array with color pixels with different characteristics of spectral sensitivity arranged. The pixel array part has at least one clear pixel, the plurality of color pixels including at least two of (i) a first color filter pixel having a peak of spectral sensitivity characteristics for red, (ii) a second color filter pixel having a peak for blue, and (iii) a third color filter pixel having a peak for green. The clear pixel has a high transmittance arranged in an oblique pixel array system at a given position of a given row and a given column with respect to the first color filter pixel, the second color filter pixel, and the third color filter pixel. An electronic shutter is separately driven for the at least one clear pixel and for the plurality of color filter pixels.