Patent ID: 8264580

Claim:
A solid-state imaging device, comprising: a pixel array unit in which unit pixels including photoelectric conversion elements are arranged in a matrix, the pixel array unit configured to (1) generate a first signal at the time of reset of a unit pixel and a second signal corresponding to electric charges obtained by the photoelectric conversion in the photoelectric conversion element of the pixel unit and (2) output the first and second signals to a signal line as a pixel signal; a signal supply unit configured to supply a reference signal to the signal line; a signal processing unit including (1) a variable gain amplifier configured to amplify various signals including the reference signal and the pixel signal at a plurality of gains, each gain set in accordance with the strength of the pixel signal, and (2) an analog/digital converter configured to convert amplified signals into digitized signals; a plurality of memory units configured to store digitized reference signal after the digitized reference signal has been generated by the signal processing unit such that the plurality of memory units respectively store the digitized reference signal for each gain from the variable gain amplifier; and a correction unit configured to subtract the digitized reference signal for each gain stored in the plurality of memory units from the digitized pixel signal that has passed through the signal processing unit such that the vertical smear noise component of the digitized pixel signal is removed.