Solid-state line-addressed charge transfer device image sensor readout

Claim 1

A solid state image sensor comprising a plurality of photoelectric cells arranged on a two-dimensional matrix, a plurality of vertical transfer sections for transferring charges produced in said respective photoelectric cell, and a horizontal transfer section for transferring, in a horizontal direction, charges transferred from said respective transfer sections, characterized in that said vertical transfer section comprises a plurality of electrodes such that one transfer stage is constituted with successive n electrodes, and a drive section for driving these electrodes by n-phase transfer clock, said solid state image sensor further comprising addressing means having a function such that a group of photoelectric cell rows located in an area corresponding to the one transfer stage is divided into p groups, thus to read out charges in photoelectric cells of at least one row belonging to a predetermined group among said p groups into one transfer stage of said vertical transfer section, and to effect transfer operation corresponding to m stages (m≧1), thereafter to read charges in photoelectric cells of at least one row belonging to a group subsequent to said predetermined group to one transfer stage of said vertical transfer section, and such that at the time of the (m×p-1)-th read operation, charges in photoelectric cells per at least one row belonging to two groups subsequent to said predetermined group are read out into one transfer stage of said vertical transfer section.