Solid-state image pickup device and a method of manufacturing the same

A method of manufacturing a solid-state image pickup device, comprising the steps of:

• preparing a package including a housing section to house a solid-state image pickup element chip and an opening section in an upper section thereof;
• sporadically and discontinuously applying an adhesive with a predetermined thickness on a bottom surface of the housing section;
• moving the solid-state image pickup element toward the housing section, wherein a desired parallelism between the package and the image pickup element is defined by bringing an upper surface of the package into contact with a rear surface of a predetermined reference surface;
• bringing a rear surface of the solid-state image pickup element into contact with the adhesive and stopping the movement of the element before the element comes into contact with the bottom surface of the housing section;
• and
• curing the adhesive while the solid-state image pickup element is floating on the adhesive and fixing the element in the housing section, wherein
• said package further comprises:
• a bottom Plate and a side wall defining a space for accommodating the image pickup element chip, and
• a projected section projecting outwardly from the side wall and parallel to the bottom plate, the projected section having the upper surface for defining a guide plane.