Patent ID: 7847849

Claim:
A solid-state imaging device, comprising: a plurality of light-receiving elements arranged in rows and columns; a plurality of vertical transferors, each of which corresponds to one of the columns of said plurality of light-receiving elements and is operable to vertically transfer signal packets and dummy packets, the signal packets including charges read from said plurality of light-receiving elements, the dummy packets being packets other than the signal packets, N columns of said plurality of vertical transferors forming a column group; a plurality of holders arranged as final stages of said plurality of vertical transferors in the N columns except an M column in the column group, each of which is operable to mix, hold, and vertically transfer the charges of the signal packets and charges of the dummy packets without depending on a vertical transfer from upstream of a corresponding vertical transferor; a horizontal transferor operable to mix, hold, and horizontally transfer the charges transferred from one of said plurality of holders and a vertical transferor in the M column in the column group; and a driver operable to drive said plurality of vertical transferors, said plurality of holders, and said horizontal transferor, wherein said driver performs the driving so that a signal packet and a dummy packet in one of the columns are mixed together into a mixed packet in each of said plurality of holders, charges of the mixed packet are held in each of said plurality of holders, the held charges of the mixed packet are vertically transferred to said horizontal transferor so that the mixed packet of one of said plurality of holders is mixed with the mixed packet of another of said plurality of holders.