Cmos image sensor on a semiconductor-on-insulator substrate and process for making same

A method of forming a CMOS image sensor, comprising:

• bonding a semiconductor donor wafer to a first surface of a glass or glass-ceramic substrate using an anodic bonding process;
• separating the semiconductor donor wafer from the glass or glass-ceramic substrate leaving an exfoliated semiconductor layer bonded thereto;
• forming a final semiconductor layer by thickening the exfoliated semiconductor layer to a thickness greater than 1 um;
• and
• forming a plurality of pixel structures in the final semiconductor layer, each pixel structure being formed by:
• isolating a plurality of semiconductor islands using vertical preferential etching,
• thinning at least some of the semiconductor islands such that some of the semiconductor islands are of a different thickness and such that each operates as a color sensitive photo-detector sensitive to a respective range of light wavelengths, and
• forming at least one transistor on a further semiconductor island, the at least one transistor operating to at least one of buffer, select, and reset one or more of the photo-detectors.