Tilted transfer gate for advanced CMOS image sensor

A pixel circuit, comprising:

• a trench etched into a front side surface of a semiconductor substrate, wherein the trench includes a bottom surface etched along a <100> crystalline plane of the semiconductor substrate and a tilted side surface etched along a <111> crystalline plane of the semiconductor substrate that extends between the bottom surface and the front side surface;
• a floating diffusion disposed in the semiconductor substrate beneath the bottom surface of the trench;
• a photodiode disposed in the semiconductor substrate beneath the tilted side surface of the trench and separated from the floating diffusion, wherein the photodiode is configured to photogenerate image charge in response to incident light;
• and
• a tilted transfer gate disposed over at least a portion of the bottom surface of the trench and at least a portion of the tilted side surface of the trench, wherein the tilted transfer gate is configured to transfer the image charge from the photodiode to the floating diffusion.