Method and apparatus for reducing imager floating diffusion leakage
AssigneeMicron Technology, Inc.
InventorHoward Rhodes
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Abstract
An imager having reduced floating diffusion leakage and a mechanism for improving the storing of collected charge is described. A polysilicon contact is provided between a floating diffusion region and a gate of a source follower output transistor, with the contact also electrically connected to a storage capacitor. The storage capacitor provides additional charge storage capacity to the floating diffusion region. In addition, an associated reset transistor has different dopant characteristics in the source and drain regions. The floating diffusion region may be used in the pixels of a CMOS imager or in the output stage of a CCD imager.
Claims2
An imager circuit comprising:
- a charge collection area for receiving photo-generated charges from a photoconversion device;
- a transistor coupled to said charge collection area such that said charge collection area acts as a source/drain region of said transistor, said source/drain region being of a first conductivity type;
- and
- a polysilicon contact doped to said first conductivity type and located over and electrically connected to said charge collection area.
2-74. (canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.