Patent ID: 7079183

Claim:
A charge transfer device comprising: a semiconductor substrate; a charge transfer path formed in said semiconductor substrate and made of a first conductivity type semiconductor layer, said charge transfer path having first barrier layers having a high potential and first well layers having a low potential, disposed alternately; a plurality of first and second charge transfer electrodes alternately formed near above the first barrier layers and first well layers of said charge transfer path; a plurality of charge transfer electrode pairs each having adjacent first and second two charge transfer electrodes connected together; a third pulse signal generator circuit for applying either a fourth pulse signal train of two-phase for 2-phase driving of charges in said charge transfer path to two charge transfer electrode pairs or a fifth pulse signal train for 2k-phase driving or more of charges in said charge transfer path to the charge transfer electrode pairs; a charge storage region formed adjacent to a final stage of the charge transfer electrodes for temporarily storing charges transferred in said charge transfer path; and a charge detecting region for detecting an amount of charges stored in said charge storage region.