Patent ID: 7750961

Claim:
A solid-state imaging apparatus comprising: a pixel section having a plurality of pixels two-dimensionally arranged in rows and columns, each including a photoelectric conversion section and an amplification section for amplifying and outputting as pixel signal an output of said photoelectric conversion section; a vertical scanning section for selecting a row to be read out of said pixel section; a noise suppressing section comprising clamp capacitors each connected at one end thereof to output ends of said pixels by the unit of said column of said pixel section and a mixing switch for mixing signals of a plurality of pixels in said row direction by connecting the other ends of adjacent ones of said clamp capacitors, setting as a reference level a signal level of said pixel retained at said clamp capacitor at a first timing when a clamp setting signal for setting a clamp potential is being applied to the other end of said clamp capacitor, for obtaining an output signal corresponding to a difference level therefrom of a signal level associated with said pixel at a second timing so as to effect noise suppression of signal associated with said pixel; a horizontal scanning section for sequentially selecting by the unit of said column those signals associated with said pixels after said noise suppression and outputting them from a horizontal signal line; and a mode control section having in a selective manner a first mode where said noise suppressing section is caused to execute said noise suppression with said mixing switch turned OFF, and a second mode where said noise suppressing section is caused to execute said noise suppression with said mixing switch turned ON after a turning OFF of said clamp setting signal, said mixing switch is turned OFF before reading signal out to the horizontal output line from said noise suppressing section in order to have the noise generated by feedthrough components to cancel each other.