Patent ID: 8120567

Claim:
A solid state image sensor comprising: a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements arranged in a two-dimensional array; a vertical shift register for scanning said photoelectric conversion elements in rows; a horizontal shift register for scanning said photoelectric conversion elements in columns; and reset means for setting each of various stage registers of said vertical shift register and said horizontal shift register to a predetermined reset potential, wherein: said vertical shift register or said horizontal shift register has a first stage register, a second and subsequent stage registers respectively connected in a cascade manner to the first stage register, each of the stage registers has a first inverter unit including a first switch and an inverter connected to the first switch, and a second inverter unit connected to the first inverter unit and including a second switch and an inverter connected to the second switch, the reset means has a first reset transistor for setting, to the predetermined reset potential, an input node of the inverter of the first inverter unit of the first stage register, and second and subseqquent reset transistors each for setting, to the predetermined reset potential, an input node of the inverter of the first inverter unit of each of the corresponding second and subsequent stage registers, and a timing of resetting the first stage register by the first reset transistor is different from a timing of resetting the second and subsequent stage registers by the second and subsequent reset transistors.