Patent ID: 7365379

Claim:
A solid state image pickup device comprising: a first area defined on a principal surface of a semiconductor substrate; a second area defined on said surface of said substrate and adjacent to said first area; and a third area defined on said surface of said substrate and adjacent to said second area, an on a side of said second area which is opposite from said first area, wherein said first area includes: a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements for accumulating signal charges corresponding to an incidence light amount; and a plurality of vertical transfer channels formed adjacent to said plurality of photoelectric conversion elements, said plurality of vertical transfer channels transferring the signal charges read from said plurality of photoelectric conversion elements in a vertical direction toward said second area; wherein said second area includes a horizontal transfer channel for transferring the signal charges transferred from said vertical transfer channels in a horizontal direction; and a first portion of an amplifier, said first portion comprising a floating diffusion region and a first stage drive field effect transistor (FET), and being formed in a horizontal direction from an output port of said horizontal transfer channel; and wherein said third area includes a second portion of said amplifier which is formed on an opposite side of said horizontal transfer channel from said first area, and comprises: a first state load FET, a second stage drive FET, a second stage load FET, a third stage drive FET and a third stage load FET.