Patent ID: 7102680

Claim:
An image pickup device comprising: a solid-state imaging element; driving means for driving said solid-state imaging element; overflow level setting means for controlling a substrate bias voltage of said solid-state imaging element in order to variably set an overflow level of a charge accumulating portion of the solid-state imaging element, the overflow level being determined according to the substrate bias voltage; and reading control means capable of reading pixel charges as an output signal by means of said driving means in a normal driving mode in which individual pixel charges of said solid-state imaging element are read separately or in an n-addition driving mode in which a specific number “n” of pixel charges in the vertical direction of said solid-state imaging element are read and added by a horizontal transfer path, wherein said overflow level setting means controls said substrate bias voltage such that the substrate bias voltage in the n-addition driving mode is a value obtained by multiplying the ratio of k/n with the substrate bias voltage in the normal driving mode, k being SatH/OFL, SatH being a saturated level of the horizontal transfer path, and OFL being an overflow level of the charge accumulating portion.