Charge transfer device and method of driving the same, and solid-state imaging device and method of driving the same

A method of driving a charge transfer device having a charge transfer portion in which a plurality of electrode pairs are formed above a transfer channel and arranged such that said plurality of electrode pairs forming N (N=2, 3, 4, . . . natural numbers) bits of said charge transfer portion are wired at every so that electrode pairs of each half bit can be independently driven at every N bits, comprising the steps of:

• in a normal operation, inputting said electrode pairs of each half bit with the same drive pulse to operate it by a two-phase complementary drive;
• and
• in an N-time speed operation, inputting said electrode pairs of N bits with N pairs of complementary drive pulses to operate them by a 2N-phase complementary drive.

A solid-state imaging device comprising:

• an imaging unit formed of a plurality of pixels for converting an incident light into a signal charge;
• and
• a charge transfer portion for transferring signal charges read out from said plurality of pixels, wherein said charge transfer portion has an electrode structure formed of electrode pairs for first and second phases repeatedly and alternately arranged above a transfer channel in its transfer direction and wired such that said electrode pairs for the first phase located across said electrode pairs for the second phase can be independently driven, a mode setting unit for setting an operation mode, and means for, when said mode setting unit sets a first operation mode, supplying a DC voltage or a transfer clock having a phase reverse to that of the transfer clock for the first phase to the electrode pair for the second phase and supplying a transfer clock having the same phase as that of the transfer clock to each of said electrode pairs located across said electrode pair for the second phase and for, when said mode setting unit sets a second operation mode, applying a DC voltage to said electrode pair for the second phase and supplying transfer clocks having reverse phase to each of said electrode pairs for the first phase located across said electrode pair for the second phase.

A method of driving a solid-state imaging device which has an imaging unit formed of a plurality of pixels for converting an incident light into a signal charge, and a charge transfer portion for transferring signal charges read out from said plurality of pixels and in which said charge transfer portion has an electrode structure formed of electrode pairs for first and second phases repeatedly and alternately arranged above a transfer channel in its transfer direction and wired such that said electrode pairs for the first phase located across said electrode pairs for the second phase can be independently driven, comprising the steps of:

• in a first operation mode, supplying a DC voltage or a transfer clock having a phase reverse to that of a transfer clock for the electrode pairs for the first phase to the electrode pairs for the second phase and supplying a transfer clock having the same phase to each of said electrode pairs for the first phase located across said electrode pair for the second phase;
• and
• a second operation mode, applying a DC voltage to said electrode pairs for the second phase and supplying transfer clocks having reverse phase to each of said electrode pairs for the first phase located across said electrode pair for the second phase.