Solid-state image sensor with amorphous semiconductor photoconductive cell array

Claim 1

A solid-state image sensor comprising: (a) a substrate; (b) an elongated amorphous semiconductor layer formed on said substrate in a first area thereof; (c) a first number of photoelectric converting elements linearly aligned on said amorphous semiconductor layer, for serving as a linear array of photosensitive cells of said image sensor which are divided into a second number of cell units, said photoelectric converting elements having, first comb-shaped electrodes formed on said amorphous semiconductor layer to define said photosensitive cells, and second comb-shaped electrodes also formed on said amorphous semiconductor layer in such a manner that each second electrode is spacially meshed with the first electrodes included in the corresponding cell unit to serve as a common electrode therefor said first comb-shaped electrodes including two neighboring comb-shaped electrodes which respectively belong to two adjacent cell units and which have tooth portions positioned at the side end portions thereof and adjacent directly to each other; and (d) signal readout means connected to said photoelectric converting elements, for sequentially selecting a cell unit from among said cell units to produce a time sequential image signal, said signal readout means comprising: first signal lines formed on said substrate in a second area thereof and extending along said semiconductor layer, second signals lines insulatively provided over said first signal lines to be crossed together so as to form a matrix circuit configuration, drive voltage generator means connected to said second comb-shaped electrodes through said matrix circuit configuration, for applying an electric drive voltage to said photoelectric converting elements, and signal detector means connected to said first comb-shaped electrodes, for detecting image signals sequentially supplied from said photoelectric converting elements to produce an electrical video signal.