Patent ID: 7710483

Claim:
A solid-state imaging apparatus comprising: a plurality of light-receiving elements which are arranged by rows and columns; a plurality of vertical transfer units each of which is arranged for a corresponding column of said light-receiving elements, and is operable to vertically transfer a plurality of signal packets and a dummy packet in a packets-mixing mode, the signal packets including charges read from said light-receiving elements, the dummy packet being a packet other than the signal packets, and N columns of said vertical transfer units forming one column group; a plurality of holding units which are arranged in final stages of said vertical transfer units in N columns except M columns in the column group, and each of which is operable to mix, hold, and vertically transfer charges of the signal packets and the dummy packet without depending on vertical transfer from upstream of said corresponding vertical transfer unit; a horizontal transfer unit operable to mix, hold, and horizontally transfer the charges transferred from said holding units or said vertical transfer units in the M columns in the column group; and a driving unit operable to drive said vertical transfer units, said holding units, and said horizontal transfer unit, wherein said driving unit is operable to drive, in said packets-mixing mode, said holding units and said horizontal transfer unit to generate a first mixed packet and a second mixed packet in said horizontal transfer unit, the first mixed packet includes: a plurality of signal packets belonging to a same row and neighbor columns of a same color; and a dummy packet belonging to a same column as the signal packets, and the second mixed packet includes no signal packet but a plurality of dummy packets in a same column as the signal packets included in the first mixed packet.