Patent · US Expired

Process for fabricating a high quality CMOS image sensor

US6306678A · kind A · utility

11Cited by
5References
17Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 20, 1999
Grant dateOct 23, 2001
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 20, 2019

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH10F39/803

Abstract

A process of fabricating an image sensor cell, on a semiconductor substrate, with the image sensor cell exhibiting low dark current generation, and high signal to noise ratio, has been developed. The process features the use of a photoresist shape, used to protect a previously formed photodiode element, from an reactive ion etching procedure, used to define insulator spacers on the sides of a polysilicon gate structure, of a reset transistor structure This process sequence avoids damage to the surface of an N type component, of the photodiode element, resulting in the improved electrical characteristics, when compared to counterpart image sensor cells, in which the photodiode element was subjected to the insulator spacer definition procedure.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.