Patent ID: 8085334

Claim:
An imaging apparatus comprising: a lens for collecting light incident from outside; a solid-state imaging device having on its top surface an imaging area in which pixels for converting the incident light to a signal are two-dimensionally arranged in a row direction and a column direction, a vertical scanning circuit, located adjacent to the imaging area in the row direction, for selecting the pixels from which the signal is read on a row by row basis, a peripheral circuit for processing the signal read from the imaging area, and a plurality of terminals including a signal terminal for outputting the signal; and a prism, placed directly on the imaging area, for bending an optical axis of the incident light that has passed through the lens and leading the incident light to the imaging area, wherein the peripheral circuit lies in a first direction from the imaging area, the first direction being one of opposite directions from the imaging area along the column direction, and the plurality of terminals lie in the first direction from the peripheral circuit, and an optical axis of the lens and the first direction are parallel to each other.