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US 7,609,308 B2Granted
Color filter array and microlens array
AssigneeAptina Imaging Corporation
InventorScott Patrick Campbell
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Semiconductor imaging devices with integrated holographic optical elements for beam focusing and color separation.
Claims33
A device, comprising:
- a substrate of a semiconductor material;
- an array of sensing pixels fabricated over said substrate, each sensing pixel being responsive to input radiation to produce a pixel output representative of received radiation by said sensing pixel, wherein said sensing pixels are formed of multiple pixel layers and at least one of said multiple pixel layers comprises an electrically conductive in-pixel circuit element;
- and
- an optical mask layer formed over said substrate in an optical path of the input radiation, said optical mask layer having a plurality of optical elements to modify a property of the input radiation prior to detection by said sensing pixels,
- wherein said electrically conductive in-pixel circuit element is formed over said optical mask layer.
2 more elements
A device, comprising:
- a substrate of a semiconductor material;
- a plurality of pixel layers formed over said substrate and patterned to define an array of sensing pixels, each sensing pixel being responsive to input radiation to produce a pixel output representative of received radiation by said sensing pixel;
- a first optical mask layer formed over said substrate in an optical path of the input radiation, said first optical mask layer having a plurality of optical elements to optically interact with the input radiation;
- and
- a second optical mask layer formed between said first optical mask layer and said substrate, said second optical mask layer separated from said first optical mask layer by a set of contiguous pixel layers and having a plurality of optical elements to optically interact with the input radiation that passes through said first optical mask layer,
- wherein said contiguous pixel layers separating the first and second optical mask layers comprise electrically conductive in-pixel circuit elements.
3 more elements
A device, comprising:
- a substrate of a semiconductor material;
- an array of sensing pixels fabricated over said substrate, each sensing pixel being responsive to input radiation to produce a pixel output representative of received radiation by said sensing pixel;
- and
- an optical mask layer formed over said substrate in an optical path of the input radiation, said optical mask layer having a plurality of optical elements to modify a property of the input radiation prior to detection by said sensing pixels, wherein each optical element both focuses a beam and spectrally filters the same beam,
- wherein said sensing pixels are formed of multiple pixel layers comprising electrically conductive in-pixel circuit elements and at least one of said pixel layers is formed over said optical mask layer.
2 more elements
An imager, comprising:
- a plurality of pixel cells configured to convert incident light into an electrical signal, each pixel cell comprising a plurality of pixel layers;
- and
- an optical layer between two of said plurality of pixel layers, the two pixel layers each containing an electrically conductive in-pixel circuit element,
- wherein said optical layer comprises a plurality of optical elements, each configured to focus the incident light on a respective pixel cell.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.