There is provided a charge transfer device comprising a shift register comprised of a plurality of shift stages directly connected to each other, phase pulses for a multi-phase control pulse being delivered to the shift stages, respectively, a transfer control pulse being delivered to the shift register stage arranged at one end of the plurality of shift stages; and a transfer unit having a plurality of transfer electrodes provided in correspondence with the shift stages of the shift register, transfer pulses being delivered from the shift stages of the shift register to the transfer electrodes, respectively, to apply transfer pulses in a predetermined order from the shift stages of the shift register to the transfer electrodes of the transfer unit, respectively, to thereby sequentially transfer signal charges stored below the transfer electrodes in a predetermined direction. In this device, the transfer electrodes are such that transfer electrodes having a large electrode area and transfer electrodes having a small electrode area are arranged one after other, and that they are connected to the respective stages of the shift register in order. It is desirable that the area relationship of the transfer electrodes is such that the ratio between transfer electrodes having a large electrode area and a small electrode area is set to a sufficiently large value. This charge transfer device is combined with a photoelectric conversion unit comprised of a plurality of photosensitive elements to constitute a solid state image pickup device.