Patent 7508975 was granted and assigned to Sony on March, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An image sensor is disclosed, which includes:a pixel unit having a plurality of pixels each outputting incident light as a pixel signal;an amplifier amplifying the pixel signal output from the pixel unit; anda defective pixel detection circuit performing a defective pixel detection on signals output from the amplifier, whereinthe defective pixel detection circuit adjusts the detection accuracy of the defective pixel detection in accordance with an exposure condition of the pixel unit.