US 12,120,448 B2
Imaging device
Shota Yamada, Shiga (JP); Motonori Ishii, Osaka (JP); Shigetaka Kasuga, Osaka (JP); Masato Takemoto, Osaka (JP); and Yutaka Hirose, Kyoto (JP)
Assigned to PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD., Osaka (JP)
Filed by Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd., Osaka (JP)
Filed on Mar. 1, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/683,465.
Application 17/683,465 is a continuation of application No. PCT/JP2020/029235, filed on Jul. 30, 2020.
Claims priority of application No. 2019-163238 (JP), filed on Sep. 6, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0191424 A1, Jun. 16, 2022
Int. Cl. H04N 25/778 (2023.01); H04N 25/60 (2023.01); H04N 25/772 (2023.01)
CPC H04N 25/778 (2023.01) [H04N 25/60 (2023.01); H04N 25/772 (2023.01)] 13 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
9. An imaging device comprising:
a solid-state imaging element having a plurality of pixel cells arranged in a matrix; and
a signal processing part configured to process a detection signal outputted from each of the pixel cells, wherein
the pixel cells each include an avalanche photodiode,
during an exposure period of the pixel cells, the pixel cells accumulate charges from the avalanche photodiode to output a voltage corresponding to the accumulated charges as the detection signal, wherein the accumulated charges correspond to a count number of photons received by the avalanche photodiode during the exposure period, and
the signal processing part includes
a correlation extraction part configured to extract a correlation between the count number and the detection signal for each of the pixel cells, and
a count number acquisition part configured to acquire the count number corresponding to the detection signal from each of the pixel cells on the basis of the correlation extracted by the correlation extraction part.