US 7,256,469 B2 · Solid-state image pickup device

Abstract

A solid-state image pickup device 10 has an arrangement in which a second conductivity type semiconductor region 14 is formed on the surface of a first conductivity type electric charge accumulation region 13 of a light-receiving sensor portion, a shallow trench isolation layer 20 formed of an insulating layer is buried into a trench formed on a semiconductor substrate 11, the shallow trench isolation layer 20 is composed of an upper wide portion 21 and a lower narrow portion 22 and a second conductivity type semiconductor region 23 is formed around the lower narrow portion 22 of the shallow trench isolation layer 20. The solid-state image pickup device can suppress the occurrence of a dark current and a white spot, it can produce an image with high image quality and it can sufficiently maintain a sufficiently large amount of electric charges that can be handled by the light-receiving sensor portion.

Claims6

Dependent claims

A solid-state image pickup device comprising:

a sensor portion including a first conductivity type electric signal charge accumulation region and a second conductivity type semiconductor region formed above said first conductivity type electric charge accumulation region;
and
an isolation portion provided within a trench extending from a level of the second conductivity charge accumulation region down at least into a level of the first conductivity type semiconductor region, wherein said isolation portion is composed of an upper wide portion and a lower narrow portion and includes a stepped structure, a second conductivity type semiconductor region being formed around said lower narrow portion of said isolation portion;
wherein the upper wide portion is primarily located in a same level of the device as the second conductivity type region and further wherein the lower narrow portion of the isolation is generally uniform in size.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Solid-state image pickup device

Life of this patent

Solid-state image pickup device

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims6