Patent ID: 7399951

Claim:
A solid-state image-sensing device comprising a plurality of pixels, the pixels each comprising: a buried photodiode that produces a photoelectric charge commensurate with an amount of incident light and that accumulates the photoelectric charge within itself; a first transfer gate that transfers the photoelectric charge accumulated in the buried photodiode; a first floating diffusion region that accumulates an electric charge transferred via the first transfer gate from the buried photodiode; a second transfer gate that transfers the electric charge accumulated in the first floating diffusion region; and a second floating diffusion region that accumulates an electric charge transferred via the second transfer gate from the first floating diffusion region, wherein, in each pixel, the buried photodiode, the first and second transfer gates, and the first floating diffusion region together constitute a photoelectric conversion portion, and wherein, as a result of all the pixels performing image sensing simultaneously in the respective photoelectric conversion portions, simultaneously in each of the pixels, the photoelectric charge commensurate with the amount of light incident on the buried photodiode is held in the first floating diffusion region, then, in each pixel, a noise signal commensurate with an initial state of the second floating region is outputted, and then the photoelectric charge held in the first floating diffusion region is transferred to the second floating diffusion region, and an image signal commensurate with an amount of the thus transferred photoelectric charge is outputted.