Patent ID: 7940318

Claim:
A solid-state imaging device comprising: a photoelectric converter corresponding to a pixel and configured to output a signal charge in accordance with received light; j storage cells corresponding to the pixel and configured to respectively store therein pieces of information corresponding to signal charges that are output from the photoelectric converter at different time points, where j≧3; a combining unit configured to combine pieces of information stored in at least two storage cells of the j storage cells, to generate combined information; and a selective storing unit configured to store the combined information into one of the j storage cells, wherein: the photoelectric converter is connected to the j storage cells by one shared signal line, each of the j storage cells is connected to a corresponding switch circuit in series thereby forming j series circuits, the j series circuits are connected to the shared signal line in parallel, and each of the j storage cells is connected to the shared signal line via the corresponding switch circuit, the at least two storage cells are f storage cells, where 2≦f≦j−1, and the storage cell in which the combined information is stored is other than the f storage cells.