Patent ID: 8570412

Claim:
A device, comprising: a plurality of charge-to-voltage converters; a pixel array having a plurality of pixels arranged therein, each pixel including a photodetector as well as a transfer transistor configured to transfer charge photoelectrically converted by the photodetector to one of the charge-to-voltage converters; a plurality of reset transistors configured to reset the photodetectors; a plurality of amplifier transistors configured to output a signal corresponding to the potential of the photodetectors; a reset gate power supply for the reset transistor; and an amplifier power supply for the reset transistor, wherein, the reset transistor, the amplifier transistor and the charge-to-voltage converter are shared by at least two pixels, the reset gate power supply has a voltage level that is higher than a voltage level of the amplifier power supply, the voltage level of the amplifier power supply is fixed, and the reset gate power supply selectively takes either a first voltage level or a second voltage level, the second voltage level being higher than the first voltage level, each of the first and second voltage levels being higher than the voltage level of the amplifier power supply.