Disclosed are an image pickup apparatus and a dark current correction method that make it possible to correct the dark current at high precision without using a driving pattern of a peripheral circuit or a layout on an image pickup device chip. An exemplary system includes an ablation catheter having an expandable distal end for securing the ablation catheter in the esophagus. % of a polymer having a melting point of not less than 100\xb0 C. The resist is developed and the mask layer is etched according to the resist pattern. Single-ended read bit lines are used to provide read performance comparable to write performance.