Patent ID: 7911507

Claim:
A solid-state image pickup device comprising: a pixel unit in which cells are arranged in rows and columns two-dimensionally on a semiconductor substrate, each of the cells having photoelectric conversion section, accumulating signal charge obtained by photoelectrically converting light incident on the photoelectric conversion section, and outputting a voltage corresponding to the accumulated signal charge; W (white), R (red), G (green), and B (blue) color filters provided on the cells in the pixel unit; an analog/digital converter circuit which converts analog signals output from a W pixel, an R pixel, a G pixel, and a B pixel on whose cells the W (white), R (red), G (green), and B (blue) color filters are provided respectively into digital signals, and outputs a W signal, an R signal, a G signal, and a B signal separately; a saturated signal quantity control circuit which controls the saturated signal quantity of the W pixel, the saturated signal quantity control circuit including a storage time control circuit which accumulates signal charge in such a manner that the storage time during which signal charge is stored in the photoelectric conversion section is caused to differ; a linear conversion circuit which processes signals in such a manner that the signals differing in the storage time have the same storage time spuriously; and a signal generator circuit which corrects and generates the R signal, the G signal, and the B signal using the W signal, the R signal, the G signal, and B signal output from the analog/digital converter circuit.