Patent ID: 6946638
Filing Date: 2005-09-20
Classification: H01L,Y02E,Y02P

Abstract:
1. A solid-state imaging device, comprising: a substrate; a photoelectric conversion element in the substrate and generating photo-generated charges corresponding to incident light; an accumulation well accumulating the photo-generated charges; a modulation well holding the photo-generated charges transferred from the accumulation well; a modulation transistor having a channel threshold voltage that is controlled by the photo-generated charges held in the modulation well, and that outputs a pixel signal corresponding to the photo-generated charges; a transfer control element changing a potential barrier of a photo-generated charges transfer channel between the accumulation well and the modulation well to control transfering of the photo-generated charges; an unwanted charges discharging control element controlling a potential barrier of an unwanted charges discharging channel coupled to the accumulation well, the unwanted charges discharging control element discharging the photo-generated charges that overflow from the accumulation well through the unwanted charges discharging channel during a period other than a transfer period when the photo-generated charges are transferred from the accumulation well to the modulation well by the transfer control element; and a residual charges discharging control element controlling a potential barrier of a residual charges discharging channel coupled to the modulation well, and discharging residual charges in the modulation well through the residual charges discharging channel.