US 9,000,500 B2Granted

Image sensor with doped transfer gate

AssigneeOmniVision Technologies, Inc.

InventorsHung Q. Doan, Eric G. Stevens

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

An image sensor includes an array of pixels, with at least one pixel including a photodetector formed in a substrate layer and a transfer gate disposed adjacent to the photodetector. The substrate layer further includes multiple charge-to-voltage conversion regions. A single photodetector can transfer collected charge to a single charge-to-voltage conversion region, or alternatively multiple photodetectors can transfer collected charge to a common charge-to-voltage conversion region shared by the photodetectors. An implant region formed when dopants are implanted into the substrate layer to form source/drain implant regions is disposed in only a portion of each transfer gate while each charge-to-voltage conversion region is substantially devoid of the implant region.

Claims10

Dependent claims

An image sensor comprising:

at least one photodetector formed in a substrate layer;
a well including a charge-to-voltage conversion region formed in the substrate layer;
a transfer gate disposed between each photodetector and charge-to-voltage conversion region;
a first implant region including a first dopant disposed over a second implant region including a second dopant, wherein the first and second implant regions extend from an edge of the transfer gate overlapping the charge-to-voltage conversion region and are disposed in only a portion of each transfer gate, wherein the charge-to-voltage conversion region includes the first dopant of the first implant region which extends from below the edge of the transfer gate away from the transfer gate and is substantially devoid of the second dopant of the second implant region, and wherein the first dopant and the second dopant have a conductivity type that is opposite a conductivity type of the well.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 12/942,517Filed 9 Nov 2010 · us provisional application
Priority: 30 Dec 2009
Published: US 2011/0156112 A130 Jun 2011
Granted: 7 Apr 2015
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification6 codes

H10F 39/014
Manufacture or treatment of image sensors covered by group H10F39/12: of CMOS image sensors
H10F 39/802
Constructional details of image sensors: geometry or disposition of elements in pixels, e.g. address-lines or gate electrodes
H10F 39/803
Constructional details of image sensors: pixels having integrated switching, control, storage or amplification elements
H10F 39/8037
Pixels having integrated switching, control, storage or amplification elements: the integrated elements comprising a transistor

Family

Application61/335,041Us provisional application · filed 30 Dec 2009
Application61/335,028Us provisional application · filed 30 Dec 2009
US 2011/0156112 A1Pre-grant publication · published 30 Jun 2011
US 9,000,500 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

Timeline

Citations

Open elsewhere

Building an agent or pulling many patents? Use the API or MCP server instead of scraping pages. Get an API key