Patent ID: 8902341

Claim:
A solid-state imaging device comprising: a plurality of unit pixels arranged two-dimensionally in rows and columns, each unit pixel including (i) a photoelectric conversion element, (ii) a plurality of electric charge transferring and accumulating units that are each configured to transfer and accumulate an electric charge that is generated in the photoelectric conversion element, and (iii) a floating diffusion region that holds the electric charge transferred from the photoelectric conversion element via the electric charge transferring and accumulating units so as to be read out as a signal, wherein, the solid-state imaging device is configured such that (i) all of the plurality of unit pixels simultaneously transfer in order a plurality of signal electric charges to the plurality of electric charge transferring and accumulating units in each respective unit pixel, the plurality of signal electric charges being generated in the photoelectric conversion element of each unit pixel of the plurality of unit pixels during a plurality of continuous exposure times of which each has a different duration, and being accumulated in different respective electric charge transferring and accumulating units of the unit pixel, (ii) in each unit pixel of a target plurality of unit pixels, the plurality of signal electric charges are transferred to the floating diffusion region in the order of being transferred to the electric charge transferring and accumulating units and a plurality of signals respectively corresponding to the plurality of signal electric charges are read out from the floating diffusion region, and (iii) the floating diffusion region is reset before each of the plurality of signals are read out from the floating diffusion region, and the solid-state imaging device is further configured such that, in addition to the floating diffusion region being reset before the readout of each of the plurality of signals therefrom, the photoelectric conversion element in each unit pixel of the plurality of unit pixels is reset, the photoelectric conversion element being reset such that unnecessary electric charge accumulated in the photoelectric conversion element is transferred via the plurality of electric charge transferring and accumulating units to the floating diffusion region to be discharged from the floating diffusion region, the unnecessary electric charge being transferred to a first one out of the plurality of electric charge transferring and accumulating units before a first exposure time out of the plurality of continuous exposure times starts.