Patent ID: 8169520

Claim:
A solid-state imaging apparatus comprising: a substrate with oppositely facing first and second surfaces at respective first and second surface sides of the substrate, the substrate being of sufficient thickness to allow light incident on the first surface to pass therethrough; a plurality of sensors arranged in rows and columns on the second surface side of the substrate, each sensor being a pixel of the imaging apparatus and able to photoelectrically convert the light passing through the substrate into a charge signal; a floating diffusion on the second surface side of the substrate to which signals from two diagonally adjacent sensors are transferred, any two diagonally adjacent sensors of the plurality of sensors sharing the floating diffusion being disposed in different columns and the floating diffusion being diagonally disposed with respect to only two diagonally adjacent sensors sharing said floating diffusion; transfer gates on the second surface side of the substrate, and respectively disposed between the floating diffusion and the sensors; and a readout circuit on the second surface side of the substrate and disposed adjacent one of the sensors from which signals are transferred to the floating diffusion, wherein, the readout circuit includes a reset transistor and an amplifier transistor and the transistors are each disposed together in an active region between rows or columns of the pixels in an aligned manner, and the readout circuit is connected to the two diagonally adjacent sensors and to two further diagonally adjacent sensors.