Patent ID: 8008697

Claim:
A method for driving a solid-state imaging device including pixels arranged in a two-dimensional matrix with rows and columns, with a signal line provided in each column, each pixel including (a) a photoelectric conversion element, (b) a transfer transistor transferring electric charge obtained by photoelectric conversion in the photoelectric conversion element to a floating diffusion, (c) a reset transistor connected between the floating diffusion and a drain driving wire provided for the pixel, the reset transistor controlling the potential of the floating diffusion, and (d) an amplifying transistor outputting a signal corresponding to the potential of the floating diffusion, the method comprising the steps of: before a pixel has an operating period, fixing the potential of the signal line to an intermediate potential between a first power-supply potential and a second power-supply potential; returning the potential of the drain driving wire from an inactive level to an active level after the operating period of the pixel ends; and setting an inactive level of a reset pulse supplied to the gate of the reset transistor (i) to a negative voltage if the reset transistor is an N-channel transistor, and (ii) to be equal to or greater than a power-supply voltage if the reset transistor is a P-channel transistor.