US Patent Issued to NIKON on July 21 for "Solid state imaging device" (Japanese Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 21 -- United States Patent no. RE50,962, issued on July 21, was assigned to NIKON Corp. (Tokyo).

"Solid state imaging device" was invented by Toru Shima (Machida, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A plurality of pixels PX include effective pixels and optical black pixels. Signal lines VL are provided corresponding to each column of the pixels PX and supplied with output signals of the pixels PX of the corresponding column. Clip transistors CL are provided corresponding to the respective signal lines VL and limit a potential of the corresponding vertical signal lines VL based on a gate potential. At least in a predetermined operating mode, a potential Vclip_dark is sup...