Solid-state imaging device
AssigneesHitachi, Ltd., Hitachi Device Engineering Co., Ltd.
InventorsNorio Koike, Toshifumi Ozaki, Masaaki Nakai, Haruhisa Ando, Shinya Ohba, Hideyuki Ono, Hajime Akimoto, Hajime Kinugasa
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Abstract
A solid-state imaging device includes a vertical CCD shift register for transferring electric charge. The electrode of the vertical CCD located nearest to the substrate is extended outside of the region of the vertical CCD to a region of a layer where isolation is required. The layer is thus imparted with two functions, that is, the function of the CCD electrode and that of the iolation electrode. An overflow transistor is also provided to discharge excess charge produced by high intensity light.
Claims9
A solid-state imaging device comprising:
- a semiconductor body;
- a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements formed on said semiconductor body and arranged in horizontal and vertical directions;
- a plurality of vertical charge transfer devices which vertically transfer charge and which are composed of a plurality of sets of at least first and second electrodes;
- a plurality of transfer gates through which signal charge produced in each said photoelectric conversion elements in response to incident light is transferred to a channel beneath a predetermined electrode of said vertical charge transfer devices;
- a horizontal charge transfer device by which the signal charges delivered from said vertical charge transfer devices are horizontally transferred;
- and
- an overflow transistor provided in an isolation region lying between one of said photoelectric conversion elements and one of said vertical charge transfer devices for discharging externally excess charge produced upon incidence of light having high intensity, said overflow transistor having a gate thereof comprised of a portion of a third electrode disposed in said isolation region, and wherein a drain of the overflow transistor and the gate of the overflow transistor are electrically coupled to each other so as to reduce a required area of the overflow transistor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.