Patent ID: 7880789

Claim:
A solid-state image pick-up apparatus comprising: a solid-state image pick-up device including: a plurality of photosensitive cells two-dimensionally arranged for converting incident light from an object scene into signal charges; a plurality of vertical transfer paths disposed adjacent each of said plurality of photosensitive cells and having electrodes vertically arranged for transferring the signal charges; a plurality of gates formed between each of said plurality of photosensitive cells and associated one of said vertical transfer paths in connection with the electrodes of said one vertical transfer path for reading out the signal charges accumulated in said plurality of photosensitive cells to said vertical transfer path; and a horizontal transfer path having electrodes for transferring the signal charges in a horizontal direction substantially perpendicular to said vertical transfer paths, a timing signal generator for generating a timing signal to be supplied to said gates for reading out the signal charges accumulated in said photosensitive cells; and a drive signal generator operative in response to the timing signal for generating a drive signal to be applied to the electrodes of said vertical transfer paths for transferring the signal charges, said gates and the electrodes of said gates being alternately arranged on adjacent two of said vertical transfer paths, said drive signal generator generating a drive signal for preventing the signal charges from staying under the electrodes in connection with said gates, said apparatus further comprising a controller for controlling said drive signal generator based on an image pick-up condition obtained from the light incident, wherein the drive signal has three levels, said drive signal generator generating the drive signal which changes to lowest one of the three levels prior to commencing horizontal transfer and which changes to middle one of the three levels after the horizontal transfer completed, said controller performing control in accordance with a selected one of drive modes of relatively increasing a number of drive phases and a number of times the signal charges being read out in relation to an increase of the optical sensitivity set.