Patent ID: 7855742

Claim:
A solid state imaging device including: a two-dimensional array of photosensitive cells supplied with incident light from a field being imaged, via color filter segments for color separating the incident light, said photosensitive cells transducing the light transmitted through said color filter segments into electrical signals depending on a volume of transmitted light, the signal charges having color attributes, said device reading out from each of said photosensitive cells and transferring in a vertical direction; a first horizontal transfer circuit for transferring signal charges in a horizontal direction perpendicular to the vertical direction; a branching circuit arranged adjacent to an output end of said first horizontal transfer circuit for transiently holding the signal charges transferred and for distributing the signal charges to a plurality of output destinations related with the color attributes of the signal charges; a plurality of second horizontal transfer circuits connected to said branching circuit as branching destinations; and a plurality of output circuits each provided at an output end of each of said second horizontal transfer circuits, said output circuits each converting the signal charges into an analog voltage signal responsive to the amount of the signal charges to output the analog voltage signal; the signal charges supplied to said branching circuit at a horizontal transfer speed during horizontal transfer not lower than a preset transfer speed being classified depending on the color attributes and transferred to each of said second horizontal transfer circuits, said output circuits each converting the signal charges into said analog voltage signals; the analog voltage signals being output from selected second horizontal transfer circuit during horizontal transfer speed lower than said preset transfer speed, said output circuit converting the signal charges into said analog voltage signals; said plural output circuits exhibiting differential detection sensitivities for the signal charges depending on the color attributes of the signal charges supplied; said output circuits outputting the analog voltage signals.