Patent ID: 8115847

Claim:
A solid-state imaging apparatus comprising: an imaging area wherein a plurality of pixel circuits are arranged two dimensionally, and each of the pixel circuits includes a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements each for generating an electric charge by a photoelectric conversion and for accumulating the electric charge, a single floating diffusion portion for accumulating the electric charge, a plurality of transfer switches each for transferring the electric charge from one of the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements to the single floating diffusion portion, and an amplifying transistor for amplifying a voltage corresponding to the electric charge accumulated in the single floating diffusion portion; a vertical scanning circuit for controlling the plurality of transfer switches; a horizontal scanning circuit for reading out the voltage amplified by the amplifying transistor; and a power source circuit for controlling a voltage supplied to the amplifying transistor to set the amplifying transistor to an activation state or a non-activation state, wherein the plurality of transfer switches transfer the electric charges from the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements sequentially to the floating diffusion portion while maintaining the amplifying transistor at the activation state, the horizontal scanning circuit sequentially reads out the voltage corresponding to the electric charges of the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements, and a time period of maintaining the amplifying transistor at the activation state includes at least a part of a horizontal scanning period.