An image pickup device includes an optical member; a semiconductor image pickup element having a photoelectric converter for photoelectrically converting a light flux converged by the optical member into electric signal and for storing the electric signal thereon, and an analog circuit being adjacent to the photoelectric converter for outputting the stored electric signal in the photoelectrical converter; and an incident light preventing portion for preventing a light flux from a space between a wiring layer provided on the analog circuit and a wiring layer provided on the photoelectric converter.

Featured is a method for driving a CCD imaging device, including a plurality of photodetector columns each including a vertical array of photodetectors, a plurality of vertical CCDs, and a horizontal CCD, in a monitoring mode where only the signal charges from some of the photodetectors are used. The method includes reading a first signal charge from any one of said some photodetectors into a corresponding first packet of a corresponding one of the vertical CCDs, dividing the first signal charge in the first packet into smaller portions and placing one or more of the signal charge portions of the first signal charge into one or more second empty packets of the corresponding one of the vertical CCDs, and vertically transferring the signal charge portions in the first and the one or more second packets by the total number of the first and second packets.

In a solid state image sensor having micro lenses, the micro lens and a bonding pad electrode are formed on a planarizing layer. Thus, it is no longer necessary to etch the planarizing layer for exposing the bonding pad under the planarizing layer, by use of a photolithography, and therefore, it is possible to avoid dissolution, deform and detachment of the micro lens, which would have otherwise been caused in the prior art by dissolving a photoresist which was used in the photolithography.

The present invention discloses a solid-state image pickup device in which a photoelectric conversion part having a photoelectric conversion region, and a logic circuit part are formed on a semiconductor substrate, and outputs a potential change caused by the charges generated in the photoelectric conversion region, and is provided with a light shielding layer that covers the logic circuit part, and a light shielding film that defines the region of beam incidence on the photoelectric conversion region, where the light shielding film is provided closer to the semiconductor substrate than the light shielding layer.