Active pixel sensors with substantially planarized color filtering elements
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1. An integrated semiconductor imaging device, comprising:
- a sensor array having a plurality of pixel circuits disposed relative to one another on a semiconductor substrate, each of said pixel circuits including an optical sensor to receive light and an electronic element having at least one active transistor to convert said light into an electrical signal, wherein said pixel circuits are operable to generate an indicia indicative of an input scene;
a first color filtering layer formed on said sensor array to cover a first portion of said sensor array and configured to transmit light in at least a first selected spectral bandwidth and absorb light that is substantially outside said first selected bandwidth, said optical sensor in each of said pixel circuits in said first portion being responsive in said first selected spectral bandwidth; and
a first transparent layer, formed on said sensor array and displaced relative to said first color filtering layer to cover a remaining portion of said sensor array that is not covered by said first color filtering layer, said first transparent layer and said first color filtering layer being substantially of a same thickness and forming a first planarized layer which has a substantially flat upper surface on said first sensor array to cover said pixel circuits.
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Abstract
A semiconductor imaging system preferably having an active pixel sensor array compatible with a CMOS fabrication process. Color-filtering elements such as polymer filters and wavelength-converting phosphors can be integrated with the image sensor.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. An integrated semiconductor imaging device, comprising:
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a sensor array having a plurality of pixel circuits disposed relative to one another on a semiconductor substrate, each of said pixel circuits including an optical sensor to receive light and an electronic element having at least one active transistor to convert said light into an electrical signal, wherein said pixel circuits are operable to generate an indicia indicative of an input scene; a first color filtering layer formed on said sensor array to cover a first portion of said sensor array and configured to transmit light in at least a first selected spectral bandwidth and absorb light that is substantially outside said first selected bandwidth, said optical sensor in each of said pixel circuits in said first portion being responsive in said first selected spectral bandwidth; and a first transparent layer, formed on said sensor array and displaced relative to said first color filtering layer to cover a remaining portion of said sensor array that is not covered by said first color filtering layer, said first transparent layer and said first color filtering layer being substantially of a same thickness and forming a first planarized layer which has a substantially flat upper surface on said first sensor array to cover said pixel circuits. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An imaging system capable of color filtering, comprising:
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a plurality of semiconductor substrates separated from one another; a plurality of sensor arrays respectively formed on said substrates and each having a plurality of pixel circuits, each pixel circuit in each sensor array including an optical sensor to receive light and an electronic element having at least one active transistor to convert said light into an electrical signal, said sensor arrays disposed relative to one another to receive an input image and operable to respectively generate indicia of different colors of the input image; and an electronic controller, coupled to said sensor arrays to correlate said indicia of different colors from said sensor arrays to compose a final image of said input image. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11)
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12. An integrated imaging sensor, comprising:
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an active pixel sensor array, having a plurality of active pixels responsive to photons in a first spectral range, each of said active pixels having at least one active transistor and operating to covert said photons into an electrical signal; and a phosphor layer formed on top of said sensor array, operable to convert radiation in a second spectral range into said first spectral range, said second spectral range being out of said first spectral range, whereby said integrated imaging sensor is operable to detect a signal in said second spectral range. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14)
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15. An integrated semiconductor imaging device, comprising:
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a sensor array having a plurality of active pixel circuits disposed relative to one another on a semiconductor substrate, each of said active pixel circuits including an optical sensor to receive light and at least one active transistor to convert said light into an electrical signal, wherein said pixel circuits are operable to generate an indicia indicative of an input scene; and a substantially planarized color filtering layer formed on said sensor array to cover said active pixel circuits and configured to effect color filtering and color separation on said input scene, said color filtering layer formed of an array of color filtering regions which are arranged relative to one another in said color filtering layer and have an one-to-one correspondence to said active pixel circuits, wherein said color filtering regions include at least three different types corresponding to three different transmitted colors. - View Dependent Claims (16)
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17. A method for constructing and operating an integrated semiconductor imaging device, comprising:
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forming a plurality of pixel circuits disposed relative to one another on a semiconductor substrate to provide a sensor array, each of said pixel circuits including an optical sensor to receive light and an electronic element having at least one active transistor to convert said light into an electrical signal, wherein said pixel circuits are operable to generate an indicia indicative cf an input scene; and separating frequency components in said input scene into three different frequency ranges by using first, second and third color filtering layers sequentially formed on said sensor array, wherein each of said color filtering layers includes a plurality of color filtering regions covering selected pixel circuits of said sensor array and a plurality of transparent regions disposed relative to said color filtering regions to form a planarized layer and to cover pixel circuits that are not covered by said color filtering regions, and color filtering regions in one layer being of a same type that is different from color filtering regions of another layer. - View Dependent Claims (18)
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19. A method for constructing and operating an integrated semiconductor imaging device, comprising:
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forming a plurality of pixel circuits disposed relative to one another on a semiconductor substrate to provide a sensor array, each of said pixel circuits including an optical sensor to receive light and an electronic element having at least one active transistor to convert said light into an electrical signal, wherein said pixel circuits are operable to generate an indicia indicative of an input scene; separating frequency components in said input scene into three different frequency ranges by using a substantially planarized color filtering layer formed on said sensor array to cover said pixel circuits, said color filtering layer formed of an array of color filtering regions which are arranged relative to one another in said color filtering layer and have an one-to-one correspondence to said pixel circuits, wherein said color filtering regions include at least three different types corresponding to said three different frequency ranges; and forming a microlens array over said third color filtering layer to couple said input scene to said pixel circuits through said third, second and first color filtering layers.
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Specification