Solid-state image pickup apparatus

Abstract

A solid-state image pickup apparatus comprising a pixel array made up a plurality of pixels two-dimensionally arranged and horizontal and vertical scanning circuits, each scanning circuit having an arbitrary-pixel readout function of reading a pixel signal from an arbitrary area that is a portion of the effective pixel area of the pixel array, each scanning circuit comprising: a shift register comprising a plurality of shift register units that are cascaded; a memory unit constructed of a latch for storing the output of the shift register unit; a memory switch connected between the shift register unit and the input terminal of the memory unit; a transfer switch connected between the shift register unit and the output terminal of the memory unit. The memory switch is driven to store data at each shifter register unit onto the memory unit associated with each shift register unit after a shift pulse to be input to the shift register is shifted to the shift register unit at a predetermined position within a scan start position setting period prior to a scan. The transfer switch is driven to start the scan by transferring the data that the memory unit has stored within the scan start position setting period, to the shift register unit with which the memory unit is associated.