Patent ID: 7557845

Claim:
A solid state imaging device including a reading process, a transfer process, an accumulation process, and a clear process, comprising: a plurality of pixels, each including: a photoelectric conversion element including a first well, the photoelectric conversion element generating electric charges corresponding to an incident light and the first well accumulating the electric charges; a circuit element including a second well storing the electric charges, the circuit element including a terminal, a potential of the terminal being controlled corresponding to the electric charges stored in the second well; a transfer element transferring the electric charges between the first well and the second well via a channel of the transfer element; and a discharge element discharging the electric charges from the first well via a channel of the discharge element, during the accumulation process, a potential of the discharge element channel being controlled to be lower than a potential of the transfer element channel in order to discharge overflowed electric charges from the first well when the overflowed electric charges are generated in the photoelectric conversion element and a potential of the first well is higher than the potential of the discharge element channel, the accumulation process being executed during the reading process, during the transfer process, the potential of the transfer element channel being controlled to be lower than the potential of the first well and the potential of the discharge element channel being controlled to be higher than the potential of the first well in order to transfer the electric charges from the first well to the second well, and during the clear process, the potential of the transfer element channel being controlled to be higher than the potential of the first well and the potential of the discharge element channel being controlled to be lower than the potential of the first well in order to discharge the electric charges from the first well, the clear process being executed during the reading process.