Dual-sided image sensor

An imaging apparatus, comprising:

• a dual-sided image sensor including:
• an array of photosensitive regions disposed within a single epitaxial layer;
• a metal stack disposed over a frontside of the semiconductor layer and including optical paths through the metal stack to the photosensitive regions for passing frontside incident light to the photosensitive regions;
• a backside filter array disposed over a backside of the single epitaxial layer to filter backside incident light prior to reaching the photosensitive regions;
• and
• readout circuitry coupled to readout frontside image data and backside image data from the photosensitive regions, wherein each of the photosensitive regions receives light through the backside and the frontside of the single epitaxial layer;
• and
• a reflector positioned to reflect the frontside incident light onto a frontside of the dual-sided image sensor,
• wherein the frontside incident light originates from a region facing a backside of the dual-sided image sensor.

A method of operating a dual-sided complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (“CMOS”) image sensor, the method comprising:

• capturing frontside image data incident upon a frontside of the dual-sided CMOS image sensor within an array of photosensitive regions integrated into a single epitaxial layer of the dual-sided CMOS image sensor;
• capturing backside image data incident upon a backside of the dual-sided CMOS image sensor within the array of photosensitive regions integrated into the single epitaxial layer, wherein each of the photosensitive regions receives light through the backside and the frontside of the single epitaxial layer;
• reading out the backside image data from the array of photosensitive regions;
• reading out the frontside image data from the array of the photosensitive regions;
• and
• applying posting imaging processing to the backside image data based upon the frontside image data.

A method of operating a dual-sided complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (“CMOS”) image sensor, the method comprising:

• capturing frontside image data incident upon a frontside of the dual-sided CMOS image sensor within an array of photosensitive regions integrated into a single epitaxial layer of the dual-sided CMOS image sensor;
• analyzing of the frontside image data;
• configuring the dual-sided CMOS image sensor based on the analyzing prior to capturing backside image data;
• and
• capturing the backside image data incident upon a backside of the dual-sided CMOS image sensor within the array of photosensitive regions integrated into the single epitaxial layer, wherein each photosensitive regions receives light through the backside and the frontside of the single epitaxial layer, wherein the dual-sided CMOS image sensor is configured based on the analysis of the frontside image data when capturing the backside image data;
• and
• reading out the backside image data from the array of photosensitive regions.

A dual-sided image sensor including a pixel array, wherein each pixel of the pixel array comprises:

• a photosensitive regions disposed within a single epitaxial layer;
• a metal stack disposed over a frontside of the single epitaxial layer and including an optical path through the metal stack to the photosensitive regios for passing frontside incident light to the photosensitive region;
• a backside microlens disposed over a backside of the single epitaxial layer to direct backside incident light to the photosensitive region;
• pixel circuitry coupled to the photosensitive region to capture frontside image data and backside image data from the photosensitive region;
• a backside filter array disposed between the backside microlens and the single epitaxial layer to apply a first type of filtering to the backside incident light;
• and
• a frontside filter array disposed over the metal stack to apply a second type of filtering to the frontside incident light, wherein the first type of filtering is different than the second type of filtering,
• wherein the backside filter array comprises a color filter array to apply chromatic filtering to the backside incident light and the frontside filter array comprises a monochromatic filter array,
• wherein the photosensitive region disposed within the single epitaxial layer receives light through the backside and the frontside of the single epitaxial layer.