Patent ID: 8159584

Claim:
A solid-state imaging apparatus comprising: a substrate having oppositely facing first and second surfaces at respective first and second surface sides of the substrate; a plurality of pixels arranged in rows and columns, each pixel comprising a sensor on the second surface side of the substrate, each sensor configured to photoelectrically convert light incident on the first surface of the substrate; a readout circuit on the second surface side of the substrate and disposed between two sensors which share the readout circuit; a respective floating diffusion region between each of the two sensors and the readout circuit, each floating diffusion region receiving signals from its respective sensor; and a respective transfer gate between each of the two sensors and its respective floating diffusion region, wherein, the readout circuit is in communication with both floating diffusion regions and sensors and includes a reset transistor, an amplifier transistor and a selection transistor, and the reset, amplifier, and selection transistors are disposed between the two sensors in an aligned manner, the two sensors and their respective floating diffusion regions and transfer gates are disposed symmetrically about a line between them, and a portion of a gate region of each of the reset, amplifier, and selection transistors overlaps the line.