Patent ID: 8384008

Claim:
A solid state imaging device comprising: a pixel unit which has a two dimensional matrix of pixels, in which each of the pixels arrayed in the matrix comprises; a photoelectric conversion element which converts incident light into a signal charge and accumulates the converted signal charge, a first reset unit which resets the signal charge accumulated in the photoelectric conversion element, a charge retention unit which retains a signal charge output from the photoelectric conversion element, a transmitter which transmits the signal charge accumulated in the photoelectric conversion element to the charge retention unit, a second reset unit which resets the signal charge retained in the charge retention unit, and an output unit which outputs a pixel signal in response to the signal charge, retained in the charge retention unit, to a vertical signal line; a first controller which independently controls the output unit row by row so that pixel signals are sequentially output row by row to the vertical signal line; and a second controller which independently controls the first reset unit row by row so as to reset the photoelectric conversion element when the pixel signals are output and to cancel the reset state of the photoelectric conversion element after the output of the pixel signals is completed.