Charge-coupled type solid-state image sensor

Claim 1

A charge-coupled type solid-state image sensor, comprising a semiconductor substrate having formed thereon: an image pickup region comprising photosensor element arrays and charge transfer arrays coupled thereto for generating and accumulating signal charge in response to a light image impinging on said photosensor element arrays; a plurality of charge storage regions each comprising at least two parallel-connected charge storage arrays; first transfer switching gate means interposed between said charge transfer arrays and said charge storage region for coupling charge from each charge transfer array to a corresponding one of each of said charge storage arrays so that said signal charge is sequentially transferred into the charge storage arrays of each said corresponding charge storage region, i.e. into one array of each corresponding charge storage region at a time; a readout region; and second transfer switching gate means coupled between said charge storage regions and said readout region for sequentially transferring signal charge from each array of a corresponding charge storage region to said readout region in a first-in-first-out manner, so that signal charge is read out from one charge storage array of each corresponding charge storage region while signal charge remains in at least one other charge storage array of said corresponding charge storage region.