Image sensor with buried self aligned focusing element

US7589306B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• OmniVision Technologies, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Vincent Venezia · Los Gatos, US
• Hsin-Chih Tai · San Jose, US
• Duli Mao · Sunnyvale, US
• Wei Qian · Torrance, US
• Ashish Shah · Milpitas, US
• Howard E. Rhodes · Boise, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Feb 12, 2008
• Grant date: Sep 15, 2009
• Expiry date: Feb 12, 2028

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H10F39/8067

Abstract

An image sensor includes an optical sensor region, a stack of dielectric and metal layers, and a buried focusing layer. The optical sensor is disposed within a semiconductor substrate. The stack of dielectric and metal layers are disposed on the semiconductor substrate above the optical sensor region. The metal layers include optical pass-throughs aligned to expose an optical path through the stack form a top dielectric layer through to the optical sensor region. The buried focusing layer is disposed over a conforming metal layer of the metal layers within the stack. The buried focusing layer includes a curved surface conformed by the optical pass-through of the conforming metal layer to focus light onto the optical sensor region.