Patent ID: 7812873

Claim:
An image pickup device comprising unit cells arranged two-dimensionally, wherein each of said unit cells includes: a plurality of photoelectric conversion regions; a plurality of floating diffusion regions; a plurality of transfer switches provided in correspondence to said photoelectric conversion regions, respectively; a common amplifying transistor for amplifying a signal corresponding to photocarriers transferred from said photoelectric conversion regions as an input of said common amplifying transistor; and a common reset transistor, wherein plural photoelectric conversion regions are disposed adjacent to and around one photoelectric conversion region, wherein semiconductor regions trapping overflowed carriers from said one photoelectric conversion region are arranged such that each semiconductor region is provided between said one photoelectric conversion region and a corresponding one of said plural photoelectric conversion regions, respectively, and wherein said semiconductor regions are formed of any combination of said floating diffusion regions and source regions and drain regions of said common amplifying transistor and said common reset transistor.