Patent ID: 8314871

Claim:
A pixel drive circuit, comprising: a plurality of pixel circuits each including a photoelectric converting unit for converting an incident light into an electric charge and accumulating the converted electric charge, the plurality of pixel circuits being arranged in a matrix shape; an address decoder including a subject-row selection circuit for selecting a row of pixel circuits to be controlled based on an address control signal and outputting an address selection signal per each row of the selected pixel circuits; a storage circuit for storing operation information to be executed by the pixel circuits selected by the address decoder based on the address selection signal; and a single control circuit for controlling an operation of each row of the pixel circuits selected by the address decoder in accordance with a storage state of the storage circuit, wherein, for each row of the pixel circuits selected by the address decoder, the single control circuit outputs a reset control signal, a transfer control signal, and a selection control signal to control (i) a charge discharging operation of discharging electric charges remaining in the photoelectric converting units of the row of the pixel circuits and (ii) a transfer operation of transferring electric charges out from the photoelectric converting units of the row of the pixel circuits, the storage circuit includes a first storage circuit for storing information of the charge discharging operation and a second storage circuit for storing operation information other than the charge discharging operation, and the storage circuit holds the storage state until the charge discharging operation is completed.