Patent ID: 7042061

Claim:
A solid-state image pickup apparatus which incorporates a semiconductor substrate having an image pickup region including unit pixels disposed in a two-dimensional configuration and signal scanning sections for reading signals from the unit pixels in the image pickup region, the solid-state image pickup apparatus comprising: a photoelectric conversion region having a first-conduction-type signal accumulating section formed at a position apart from a top surface of the semiconductor substrate in a direction of a depth of the semiconductor substrate for a predetermined distance and arranged to accumulate signal charges obtained from photoelectric conversion; a gate electrode of a first-conduction-type MOS field effect transistor formed adjacent to the photoelectric conversion region and arranged to discharge a signal charge from the first-conduction-type signal accumulating section; a first-conduction-type detecting node section serving as a drain region for receiving the signal charges from the photoelectric conversion region via the gate electrode; and a barrier layer formed at least close to a lower part of the first-conduction-type detecting node section of the MOS field effect transistor, wherein at least a part of the first-conduction-type signal accumulating section in a direction of a channel thereof extends to overlap the gate electrode in a direction in which signals are discharged, modulation of the potential of the gate electrode is used to discharge signals from the first-conduction-type signal accumulating section through the channel of the MOS field effect transistor, and the first-conduction-type detecting node section is not located below the gate electrode but at a second side of the gate electrode opposite to a first side of the gate electrode formed adjacent to the photoelectric conversion region.