Patent ID: 7965326
Filing Date: 2011-06-21
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. A semiconductor element comprising: two-dimensionally aligned pixels with a plurality of photoelectric conversion portions that photoelectrically convert incident light into a signal charge; a plurality of vertical transfer paths to which the signal charges are transferred from said plurality of photoelectric conversion portions; read gates that amplify signal charges read from the photoelectric conversion portions to transfer to said plurality of vertical transfer paths; and color filters that divide light into a plurality of color components, wherein pieces of the light divided by the color filters are respectively received by said plurality of photoelectric conversion portions, and wherein positions of the read gates differ from each other in accordance with colors corresponding to the photoelectric conversion portions; wherein: two or more of the read gates are formed for each of said plurality of photoelectric conversion portions, amplification factors of the two or more read gates differ from each other, the two or more read gates of each of said plurality of photoelectric conversion portions are configured to transfer signal charges having the same color components, and the two or more read gates are provided at positions of transferring signal charges to different vertical transfer paths among the plurality of vertical transfer paths relative to the corresponding photoelectric conversion portion among the plurality of photoelectric conversion portions.