US Patent 7557843 Solid state image pickup device with non-volatile memory

A solid state image pickup device comprises: a semiconductor substrate defining a two-dimensional surface; a number of photoelectric conversion elements disposed in a light receiving area of the semiconductor substrate in a matrix shape and in a plurality of rows and columns; signal processors, each formed for each column of the photoelectric conversion elements, the signal processor at least converting analog image data from the photoelectric conversion elements into digital image data; and a non-volatile memory formed in correspondence with respective photoelectric conversion elements at a succeeding stage of the signal processor, the non-volatile memory recording the digital image data.