Patent ID: 7659933

Claim:
A method for driving a solid-state imaging device, the solid-state imaging device including: photoelectric conversion sections arranged in a matrix pattern on a semiconductor substrate, with a potential barrier being formed between the photoelectric conversion sections and the semiconductor substrate, each for converting incident light to a signal charge; a vertical shift register provided between columns of the photoelectric conversion sections for reading out signal charges produced in the photoelectric conversion sections and vertically transferring the signal charges; and horizontal shift registers for horizontally transferring the signal charges from the vertical shift register, wherein: in a motion picture shooting mode, a first voltage eliminating the potential barrier is applied to the semiconductor substrate only during each period in which the horizontal shift register is inoperative to thereby sweep out the charge occurring in the photoelectric conversion sections into the semiconductor substrate; and a width of the first voltage is greater than that of a pulse voltage applied to a gate electrode of the vertical shift register.