Patent ID: 7236196

Claim:
A solid-state image pickup apparatus comprising: an image pickup section; and a signal feeding section; said image pickup section comprising: photosensitive cells for photoelectrically transducing incident light representative of a scene, said photosensitive cells being arranged bidimensionally in such position that each of said photosensitive cells is shifted in position substantially halfway from adjoining ones of said photosensitive cells in a horizontal and a vertical direction; a color filter having R (red), G (green) and B (blue) color filter segments for separating colors of the incident light, each of the color filter segments being positioned in front of a particular one of said photosensitive cells in a direction of the incident light and being arranged in a vertical stripe pattern in which the segments of a same color form a column in the vertical direction; first transfer electrodes, each being assigned to a particular one of said photosensitive cells, for reading out a signal charge generated by said particular photosensitive cell, second transfer electrodes assigned to vertical transfer paths, and third transfer electrodes assigned to a horizontal transfer path substantially perpendicular to the vertical transfer paths for forming at least one vacant packet between packets holding the signal charges transferred from said vertical transfer paths; and control circuitry for sequentially performing preliminary pickup and actual pickup, which reads all of the signal charges out of said photosensitive cells, and executing digital signal processing with signals resultant from the signal charges read out; second signal feeding section feeding transfer timing signals for transferring the signal charges generated by ones of said photosensitive cells which are positioned on odd or even-numbered ones of the columns to the vertical transfer paths via said first transfer electrodes associated with said photosensitive cells on odd-or even-numbered lines, vertical drive signals for transferring the signal charges along said vertical transfer paths toward said horizontal transfer path, and horizontal drive signals adjusted in timing for transferring the signal charges along said horizontal transfer path while maintaining a color of the signal charges, wherein each photosensitive cell is assigned four vertical transfer registers the vertical transfer registers grouped in pairs in the vertical direction and formed on both sides of the photosensitive cell in the horizontal direction, where adjacent pairs assigned to adjacent photosensitive cells shifted in position are adjoined to form the vertical transfer paths.