Patent ID: 8289425

Claim:
A solid-state image pickup device comprising: a plurality of light sensing sections; a plurality of vertical transfer registers configured to transfer signal charge of the plurality of light sensing sections in the vertical direction; a horizontal transfer register configured to transfer the signal charge in the horizontal direction; a floating gate amplifier that is placed at an output side of the horizontal transfer register; a floating diffusion amplifier that is placed in a horizontal transfer register which is provided at a stage subsequent to the floating gate amplifier; and an overflow drain mechanism that is placed in the horizontal transfer register between the floating gate amplifier and the floating diffusion amplifier, wherein the floating gate amplifier has a conversion gain lower than that of the floating diffusion amplifier, wherein, in the solid-state image pickup device, verification is performed on an output signal from the floating gate amplifier and an output signal from the floating diffusion amplifier, wherein, in a case in which an original signal is provided within a limit of a dynamic range of the floating diffusion amplifier and is a small signal having a level that is lower than a level corresponding to an amount of signal charge remaining after draining is performed with the overflow drain mechanism, the output signal from the floating diffusion amplifier is employed, and wherein, in a case in which the original signal is a large signal having a level that is higher than the level corresponding to the amount of signal charge remaining, the output signal from the floating gate amplifier is employed.