Patent 9621834 was granted and assigned to Sony on April, 2017 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Disclosed herein is a solid-state imaging element including a pixel unit configured to include a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix and a pixel signal readout unit configured to include an analog-digital conversion unit that carries out analog-digital conversion of a pixel signal read out from the pixel unit. Each one of the pixels in the pixel unit includes a plurality of divided pixels arising from division into regions different from each other in optical sensitivity or a charge accumulation amount. The pixel signal readout unit reads out divided-pixel signals of the divided pixels in the pixel. The analog-digital conversion unit carries out analog-digital conversion of the divided-pixel signals that are read out and adds the divided-pixel signals to each other to obtain a pixel signal of one pixel.