Counter circuit, AD conversion method, AD converter, semiconductor device for detecting distribution of physical quantities, and electronic apparatus

A solid-state image pick up device comprising:

• a pixel array unit including unit pixels which are two-dimensionally arranged in a matrix pattern;
• each unit pixel including a photoelectric converter;
• column signal lines corresponding to respective columns of the matrix pattern;
• a row scanning means for selectively controlling each unit pixel of the pixel array unit in units of rows;
• an analog-digital converting unit for converting analog signals output from the unit pixels in a row selectively controlled by the row scanning means through the column signal lines to digital signals;
• and
• an asynchronous counter in the analog-digital converting unit which performs counting in two modes of a down-count mode and an up-count mode,
• wherein,
• the asynchronous counter includes a counter processor configured so that when switching between the count modes occurs, a running count value is broken and there is an interval between the count modes and when a mode begins the running count value is reset to the value before the running count value was broken.