IMAGING ELEMENT, IMAGING APPARATUS, AND CONTROL METHOD

To provide an imaging element which can timely achieve a wide dynamic range in AD conversion and high resolution precision.SOLUTION: An imaging element has: a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix, each having an FD part for converting electric charges of signals transferred from a photoelectric conversion part into a voltage and an FD expansion part that is connected to the FD part and functions as an expansion capacity of the FD part by being set to an ON state; and a plurality of column signal processing parts that are commonly connected to a plurality of pixel columns each including the plurality of pixels arranged in a column direction and perform AD conversion of pixel signals Vsig supplied from the pixels. The plurality of column signal processing parts start AD conversion of high-gain pixel signals VsH when the FD expansion part is in an OFF state and AD conversion of low-gain pixel signals VsL when the FD expansion part is in an ON state in parallel.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 8 【課題】ＡＤ変換における広いダイナミックレンジと高い解像精度を適時に実現できる撮像素子を提供する。【解決手段】撮像素子が、光電変換部から転送された信号の電荷を電圧に変換するＦＤ部と、ＦＤ部に接続され、オン状態に設定されることによってＦＤ部の拡張容量として機能するＦＤ拡張部と、を各々が備える行列状に配置された複数の画素と、列方向に配置された複数の画素を各々が含む複数の画素列にそれぞれ共通して接続され、画素から供給される画素信号ＶｓｉｇをそれぞれＡＤ変換する複数の列信号処理部と、を有する。複数の列信号処理部は、ＦＤ拡張部がオフ状態のときの高ゲイン画素信号ＶｓＨに対するＡＤ変換とＦＤ拡張部がオン状態のときの低ゲイン画素信号ＶｓＬに対するＡＤ変換とを並列的に開始する。【選択図】図８