Solid state image pickup apparatus with charge storage device

摘要

A solid state image pickup device is provided in which a photodiode photoelectrically converts incident light to a voltage. Next a transistor performs voltage-to-current conversion, and a capacitor stores the charge. Current is stored in the capacitor without requiring the application of a reverse bias voltage to the photodiode. The voltage generated across the photodiode is logarithmically related to the quantity of incident light, and the dynamic range of the input signal to be reproduced is increased. As a result, dark current is minimized and dark current noise is reduced.