Patent ID: 7880786

Claim:
A solid-state image pickup device comprising: a pixel array including a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix having a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, each of the plurality of pixels converting an incident light intensity into an electrical signal; a plurality of row-selection lines, one row-selection line provided for each row of the pixel array and each connected to all of the pixels in the corresponding row; a row-selection control unit including two independent row scanning circuits, the row-selection control unit configured to selectively activate the plurality of row-selection lines; at least three column-reading lines, with n column-reading lines from a 0th column-reading line to an (n−1)th column-reading line being provided for each column of the pixel array, where n is >3; and a column-scanning unit, the column-scanning unit configured to selectively activate the plurality of column-reading lines, wherein, each of the plurality of pixels in each column of the pixel array is connected to one of the n column-reading lines that correspond to the column, a pixel in a (k+m)th row of each column is connected to an mth column-reading line, where k represents a positive integer and m represents an integer from 0 to (n−1), the column-scanning unit includes n column-scanning circuits from a 0th column-scanning circuit to an (n−1)th column-scanning circuit, and an mth column-reading line from among the n column-reading lines that correspond to each column of the pixel array is connected to an mth column-scanning circuit, where m represents an integer from 0 to (n−1).