Patent ID: 8632010

Claim:
A driving method of a photoelectric conversion apparatus, wherein the photoelectric conversion apparatus comprises a plurality of sensor chips each having a plurality of unit blocks, wherein each unit block comprises: a plurality of photoreceiving elements, a plurality of first switches each for reading a signal from a corresponding one of the photoreceiving elements, and a second switch arranged correspondingly to the plurality of first switches for reading signals from the first switches, wherein each of the plurality of first switches is connected between a corresponding one of the photoreceiving elements and the second switch; wherein the photoelectric conversion apparatus further comprises a common signal reading line through which signals are read out from the plurality of photoreceiving elements of the plurality of sensor chips, and wherein the driving method comprises: sequentially reading out signals from a selected one of the photoreceiving elements included in each of the plurality of unit blocks in a first sensor chip to the common signal reading line, thereafter sequentially reading out signals from a selected one of the photoreceiving elements included in each of the plurality of unit blocks in the second sensor chip, and the sequential read out of signals from the selected one of the photoreceiving elements included in each of the plurality of unit blocks in the second sensor chip starts in response to an output of a signal from one of the selected one of the photoreceiving elements included in the first sensor chip.