Patent ID: 7379109

Claim:
A solid-state image sensing apparatus comprising: an image sensing unit in which a plurality of unit cells is laid out on a semiconductor substrate two-dimensionally, each unit cell composing a photoelectric conversion unit operable to convert light into charge and an amplification unit which amplifies an output from the photoelectric conversion unit and outputs an amplified signal; a plurality of vertical signal lines through which the amplified signals from the unit cells are transmitted in a column direction; a horizontal direction selection unit operable to select a row of unit cells from the plurality of unit cells laid out in the image sensing region; a first accumulation capacitor and a second accumulation capacitor which are connected to a vertical signal line for each column and accumulate a signal corresponding to the amplified signal of the unit cell for each row; an accumulation capacitor selection unit operable to select a capacitor which accumulates the signal from the first accumulation capacitor and the second accumulation capacitor; a vertical direction selection unit operable to select the first accumulation capacitor and the second accumulation capacitor connected to an arbitrary vertical signal line from the first accumulation capacitors and the second accumulation capacitors connected to each of the plurality of vertical signal lines; and a horizontal signal line which is connected to a vertical signal line for each column through the vertical direction selection unit and transmits a signal corresponding to the amplified signal accumulated in the first accumulation capacitor or the second accumulation capacitor, wherein the accumulation capacitor selection unit selects the first accumulation capacitor when a sum of the amplified signals of the unit cells in the plurality of rows is performed, and selects the second accumulation capacitor when the sum is not performed, a capacitance of the first accumulation capacitor is smaller than a capacitance of the second accumulation capacitor, and the capacitance of the second accumulation capacitor is a least capacitance required to read out the signal accumulated in said second accumulation capacitor.