Patent ID: 7636116

Claim:
A solid-state image pickup device comprising: a plurality of photoelectric conversion units arranged two-dimensionally; a plurality of CCDs adapted to transfer charges generated by said photoelectric conversion units, each of said plurality of CCDs being arranged correspondingly to each column of photoelectric conversion units; a plurality of floating diffusion amplifiers for amplifying a signal based on the charge transferred by the CCDs, each of the amplifiers being arranged correspondingly to each of the CCDs; a plurality of charge detection means each comprising a transistor for holding an output from a said floating diffusion amplifier and for outputting a signal based on the output held by the transistor, a comparator for comparing the signal outputted from the transistor with the output from the floating diffusion amplifier, a counter for counting an output from the comparator, and a D/A converter for feeding back a signal outputted from the counter to a said floating diffusion amplifier; and scanning means for sequentially reading signals outputted from the charge detection means, wherein the photoelectric conversion units, the CCDs, the floating diffusion amplifiers, the charge detection means, the charge detection means and the scanning means are formed on the same semiconductor chip.