Patent ID: 7324144

Claim:
A method of driving a solid image pickup device comprising a photoelectric conversion unit, a charge-voltage conversion unit for converting electric charges from the photoelectric conversion unit into voltage signals, a signal amplification means for amplifying the voltage signals generated in the charge-voltage conversion unit, a charge transfer means for transferring photoelectric charges from the photoelectric conversion unit to the charge-voltage conversion unit, and a selecting means for reading out a signal amplified by the signal amplification means to a signal line, said method comprising: a first transferring step of transferring a portion of the electric charges accumulated in the photoelectric conversion unit to the charge-voltage conversion unit while a remaining portion of the electric charges accumulated in the photoelectric conversion unit is left in the photoelectric conversion unit; a first selecting step of reading out a first signal accumulated in one unit of an accumulation period to a signal line by the selecting means; a reset step of resetting the charge-voltage conversion unit after the first signal is read out; a second transferring step of transferring the remaining portion of the electric charges left in the photoelectric conversion unit during said first transferring step to the charge-voltage conversion unit; a second selecting step of reading out a second signal accumulated in one unit of the accumulation period to the signal line by the selecting means, wherein the second signal is a signal remaining in said first transferring step; and an adding step of adding the first signal and the second signal read out to the signal line.