Patent ID: 8717471

Claim:
A solid-state imaging device comprising: a pixel array which includes a plurality of pixels associated with rows and columns, wherein each of the pixels includes first and second photoelectric conversion elements and first and second transfer transistors associated with the first and second photoelectric conversion elements, wherein in each of the pixels, the first and second transfer transistors share a floating diffusion portion, and wherein pixels in even-numbered columns and pixels in odd-numbered columns are displaced by a half pitch in a column direction; read control lines each of which connects the first transfer transistors to each other in two of the pixels adjacent in the column direction or the second transfer transistors to each other in two of the pixels adjacent in the column direction, wherein the first and second transfer transistors which share the floating diffusion portion are connected to different ones of the read control lines, and wherein the read control lines include first read control lines which connect commonly the pixels in the even-numbered columns and second read control lines which connect commonly the pixels in the odd-numbered columns; and first and second signal lines associated with each column, wherein the first and second signal lines connect floating diffusion portions of the associated pixels, and wherein in each column, the pixels including floating diffusions connected to a first signal line are connected to different ones of the read control lines, and the pixels including floating diffusions connected to a second signal line are connected to different ones of the read control lines, wherein in a read operation, one of the first read control lines and one of the second read control lines are selected to read out signals to the first and second signal lines in each column.