US Patent 7379110 Solid-state image pickup device for producing thinned image

There is disclosed a solid-state image pickup device in which light receiving elements of a light receiving region generates information charges in accordance with incident lights. The information charges are transferred to storage picture elements of a storage region, and subsequently emitted as image signals. Here, the storage region is formed smaller than the light receiving region. Only the information charges of a selected region are transferred from the light receiving elements of the light receiving region to the storage region. Therefore, thinned-out image signals can be obtained.