Patent ID: 6952228

Claim:
An image pickup apparatus comprising: a plurality of image pickup areas formed on a same semiconductor chip and arranged in horizontal and vertical directions, each image pickup area having a plurality of pixels arranged in the horizontal and vertical directions; a plurality of vertical scanning circuits adapted to sequentially scan pixels in the vertical direction of the plurality of image pickup areas independently from each other; a plurality of lenses, at least one of which is provided in each of said plurality of image pickup areas, adapted to focus light to form an image on said plurality of image pickup areas; a driving circuit adapted to drive said plurality of vertical scanning circuits so that at least a part of a scanning period of each of said plurality of vertical scanning circuits overlaps with another vertical scanning circuit of said plurality of vertical scanninig circuits; and a common output line for sequentially outputting signals from said plurality of image pickup areas that are arranged in the horizontal and vertical directions and a horizontal scanning circuit provided in common for the plurality of image pickup areas in the vertical direction, adapted to read out signals to said common output line.