Patent ID: 7663680

Claim:
An image sensing apparatus having a plurality of unit cells arranged in two dimensions, each unit cell including a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements, a common amplifier element shared by said plurality of photoelectric conversion elements, reset elements for resetting said plurality of photoelectric conversion elements, and a plurality of transfer switches arranged respectively with said plurality of photoelectric conversion elements for transferring charge generated by each photoelectric conversion element to an input portion of said common amplifier, wherein said common amplifier element and said reset elements are arranged on the opposite sides of each photoelectric conversion element, and each photoelectric conversion element is arranged on a line between said common amplifier element and a said reset element, wherein said common amplifier element of each unit cell is arranged in an area between said plurality of photoelectric conversion elements included in the same unit cell to which the common amplifier element belongs, wherein said reset elements are arranged in an area between photoelectric conversion elements where said amplifier element is not arranged, wherein the intervals between centers of mass of photo-receiving areas of photoelectric conversion elements, immediately adjoining to each other in a first direction, are substantially equal in distance within and between all of said plurality of unit cells, and wherein driving signal lines for driving said plurality of transfer switches are arranged on opposed sides of a row of said photoelectric conversion elements in each cell.