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US 12,707,743 B2Granted
Semiconductor image-sensing structure having electro-optical modulator and image sensor device having the same
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsWei-Lin Chen, Chun-Hao Chou, Kuo-Cheng Lee
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Abstract
A semiconductor image-sensing structure includes a semiconductor substrate having a front side and a back side, a photo-sensing element disposed in the semiconductor substrate, a color filter disposed over the back side of the semiconductor substrate, and an electro-optical modulator disposed between the color filter and the photo-sensing element. The electro-optical modulator includes a first electrode, a second electrode over the first electrode, and a micro-lens between the first electrode and the second electrode.
Claims20
A semiconductor image-sensing structure, comprising:
- a semiconductor substrate having a front side and a back side;
- a first photo-sensing element and a second photo-sensing element adjacent to each other and disposed in the semiconductor substrate;
- a logic device disposed on the front side of the semiconductor substrate;
- a color filter disposed over the back side of the semiconductor substrate and overlapping the first photo-sensing element and the second photo-sensing element;
- an electro-optical (EO) modulator disposed on the back side of the semiconductor substrate, between the first photo-sensing element and the color filter, wherein the electro-optical modulator comprises:
- a first electrode;
- a second electrode over the first electrode;
- and
- a micro-lens between the first electrode and the second electrode;
- and
- an anti-reflective coating (ARC) disposed between the electro-optical modulator and the back side of the semiconductor substrate,
- wherein the first photo-sensing element is overlapped by the electro-optical modulator, and
- the second photo-sensing element is free of overlapping the electro-optical modulator.
10 more elements
An image sensor device, comprising:
- a semiconductor substrate;
- a first logic device and a second logic device disposed on a front side of the semiconductor substrate;
- a first photo-sensing element and a second photo-sensing element disposed in the semiconductor substrate;
- a third photo-sensing element adjacent to the first photo-sensing element and a fourth photo-sensing element adjacent to the second photo-sensing element disposed in the semiconductor substrate, wherein the first photo-sensing element and the second photo-sensing element are disposed between the third photo-sensing element and the fourth photo-sensing element;
- a first color filter disposed over the first photo-sensing element and the third photo-sensing element, and a second color filter disposed over the second photo-sensing element and the fourth photo-sensing element on a back side of the semiconductor substrate, wherein the back side is opposite to the front side;
- and
- a first electro-optical modulator disposed between the first photo-sensing element and the first color filter, and a second electro-optical modulator disposed between the second photo-sensing element and the second color filter, wherein each of the first electro-optical modulator and the second electro-optical modulator comprises:
- a first electrode;
- a second electrode over the first electrode;
- and
- a micro-lens between the first electrode and the second electrode,
- wherein the first electro-optical modulator and the second electro-optical modulator are separated from each other,
- wherein first photo-sensing element is overlapped by the first electro-optical modulator and
- the third photo-sensing element is free of overlapping the first electro-optical modulator, and
- the second photo-sensing element is overlapped by the second electro-optical modulator and
- the fourth photo-sensing element is free of overlapping the second electro-optical modulator.
13 more elements
An image sensor device, comprising:
- a color filter pattern comprising a first unit, a second unit, a third unit and a fourth unit arranged to form a square, wherein each of the first unit, the second unit, the third unit, and the fourth unit comprises four color filters arranged to form a square;
- a first electro-optical modulator overlapped by a first color filter in each of the first unit, the second unit, the third unit and the fourth unit;
- and
- a second electro-optical modulator overlapped by a second color filter in each of the first unit, the second unit, the third unit and the fourth unit,
- wherein the first color filter and the second color filter are arranged left-to-right or arranged diagonally, and
- wherein a third color filter and a fourth color filter in each of the first unit, the second unit, the third unit and the fourth unit are free of overlapping electro-optical modulator.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.