HIGH-SENSITIVE OPTICAL READING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF READING OPTICAL INFORMATION

In an optical reading apparatus having an image sensor for converting optically readable information into an electrical signal, a sensor driving circuit is arranged to produce at least two clocks with which two or more groups of optical imaging elements of the image sensor are respectively driven. In one embodiment, the two clocks have a time or phase difference therebetween so that signal charges from one group of the imaging elements are derived at once after signal charges of another group are derived. The derived signal charges are read out in a sequence within a period equal to the time difference. This enables a charging time to be twice or more the time difference providing high sensitivity. Since at least two or more read data can be obtained within a single charging time, high-speed reading is also resulted. In another embodiment, the optical reader is switched so that one of high-speed mode and high-resolution mode is selected. In a further embodiment, the invention is adapted to a reader having an area image sensor.