Patent ID: 7755690

Claim:
A solid-state image sensor comprising a plurality of unit pixels with each unit pixel having: (i) a photoelectric conversion element which converts incident light into an electric signal charge and stores the signal charge obtained through such photoelectric conversion; (ii) an amplifying element connected between a horizontal signal line and a power supply line with an input of the amplifying element being connected to the photoelectric conversion element; (iii) a reset element connected between the photoelectric conversion element and the power supply line; (iv) a selection element connected between the amplifying element and the horizontal signal line; (v) a reset selection element connected between a horizontal reset line and an input of the reset element; and (vi) a vertical scanning line connected to an input of the reset selection circuit and an input of the selection circuit, wherein, the amplifying element is effective to amplify the signal charge stored in said photoelectric conversion element into an electric signal, the reset element is effective to reset said photoelectric conversion element, the selection element and the reset selection element are both controlled by the same vertical scanning signal, said reset element is a depletion mode transistor and the reset element input is a reset gate, and the reset gate of said depletion mode transistor is a transverse overflow barrier to dump excess charge to the power supply.