Patent ID: 7292274

Claim:
A solid-state image pickup device driving method for driving a solid-state image pickup device comprising: a plurality of pixels that are provided with a photoelectric converting means and consist of pixels of a first color and a second color arranged in a given pattern, a plurality of first transfer paths for reading out and transferring signal charges of said pixels, and a second transfer path for reading out and transferring the pixels transferred from the first transfer paths, said method including; a first summation process comprising steps of: reading out to the aforementioned first transfer paths a plurality of pixels that constitutes all or a part of the pixels of the first color by applying charge readout voltages to corresponding charge readout electrodes, and while retaining the signal charges of specific pixels of those read in the previous step mentioned above by maintaining said specific pixels in the readout state where the charge readout voltages are being applied to corresponding specific charge readout electrodes, transferring the other signal charges read in said previous step so as to add the transferred signal charges to the retained signal charges, thereby generating first summed charges; a second summation process comprising steps of: reading out to the first transfer paths a plurality of signal charges of the pixels of the second color in the state where said first summed charges are located apart from where said plurality of signal charges of the pixels of the second color are going to be read, and summing up said signal charges of the pixels of the second color on either one of the first transfer paths or the second transfer path, or both the first transfer paths and the second transfer path, thereby generating second summed charges; and a sum output process comprising steps of: transferring said first summed charges and the second summed charges to and from the second transfer path, and outputting said first summed charges and second summed charges from the second transfer path, wherein the charge readout voltages applied to the charge readout electrodes of the plurality of pixels used in the summation are held high throughout the summation.