Solid state image pickup device and its driving method

摘要

IT-CCD has a number of photoelectric conversion elements disposed in a pixel shift layout in a plurality of rows and columns, a plurality of vertical transfer CCDs for transferring signal charges accumulated in the photoelectric conversion elements toward a horizontal transfer CCD in a zigzag way, and readout gate regions for controlling for corresponding photoelectric conversion elements to read the signal charges accumulated in the photoelectric conversion elements to the vertical transfer CCDs. In manufacturing such IT-CCD, for twos of a plurality of photoelectric conversion element columns, a vertical transfer CCD is provided in an area in plan view between the two photoelectric conversion element columns, and a plurality of charge transfer stages constituting a adjusting portion are formed downstream of the downstream ends of the vertical transfer CCDs. The horizontal transfer CCD can be formed easily without using highly sophisticated ultra fine patterning techniques and power consumption of the horizontal transfer CCD can be suppressed low.