Patent ID: 7535003

Claim:
A solid-state imaging device comprising: a semiconductor substrate; a pixel converting a heat energy generated by an incident light into an electric signal, the pixel being supported on a cavity formed in the semiconductor substrate and being thermally separated from the semiconductor substrate; a heat conduction switch having one end connected to the semiconductor substrate and other end selectively contacting to the semiconductor substrate or the pixel, the heat conduction switch changing over a state of the pixel to one of a first state and a second state, the first state being a state in which the pixel is thermally isolated from the semiconductor substrate by causing the other end of the heat conduction switch to contact with the semiconductor substrate, the second state being a state in which the pixel is thermally shorted to the semiconductor substrate by causing the other end of the heat conduction switch to contact with the pixel; and a signal detector detecting a difference between the signal voltage of the pixel in the first state and the signal voltage of the pixel in the second state.