Panasonic Corporation

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Matsushita Electronics Corporation

Conversant Intellectual Property Management Incorporated

Akira Tsukamoto

Michiyo Ichikawa

Yoko Shigeta

Hirokazu Shiraki

Akiyoshi Kohno

Takuya Asano

Koichi Yonemura

A single crystal silicon layer is formed on a principal surface of a first wafer by epitaxial growth. A silicon oxide layer is formed on the single crystal silicon layer. Next, a defect layer is formed inside the single crystal silicon layer by ion implantation, and then, the second wafer is bonded to the silicon oxide layer on the first wafer. After that, an SOI wafer including the silicon oxide layer formed on the second wafer and the single crystal silicon layer formed on the silicon oxide layer is formed by separating the first wafer including the single crystal silicon layer from the second wafer including the single crystal silicon layer in the defect layer. Then, a photodiode is formed in the single crystal silicon layer. An interconnect layer is formed on a surface of the single crystal silicon layer which is opposite to the silicon oxide layer.

Manufacturing method of solid-state image sensor

In a TOF distance measurement employing light, the accuracy of distance measurement is improved without a significant increase in cost. A light source emits light to an object during an emission period. A sensor converts received reflected light (delay time &#x3c4;) into an electrical signal during a plurality of signal accumulation periods, and accommodates the electrical signal. The signal accumulation period is set so that an accumulated signal amount varies depending on a distance to the object. The emission intensity of the light source is changed during the emission period so that the accumulated signal amount and the distance to the object has a nonlinear relationship.

Distance measuring method and distance measuring system

A solid-state imaging device includes: a plurality of photoelectric conversion units arranged in rows and columns in a pixel region; a plurality of vertical transfer units arranged for corresponding columns of the photoelectric conversion units, and transfer, in a column direction, the signal charges read from the corresponding columns of the photoelectric conversion units; a first and a second horizontal transfer units arranged in parallel, and transfer, in a row direction, the signal charges transferred by the vertical transfer units; and a first and a second output units which (i) include floating diffusion units each formed in a region adjacent to an output end of a corresponding one of the first and the second horizontal transfer units and (ii) output, as electric signals, the transferred signal charges, wherein the floating diffusion units are disposed at greater intervals than adjacent ones of the horizontal transfer units.

Solid-state imaging device having floating diffusion units disposed at greater intervals than adjacent ones of horizontal transfer units

A solid-state imaging device is provided in which transfer failure of signal charges is suppressed. The solid-state imaging device includes a plurality of photoelectric conversion units, a plurality of vertical transfer units having a plurality of vertical transfer electrodes, a plurality of horizontal transfer units having a plurality of horizontal transfer electrodes, and an intermediate transfer unit having a branch transfer electrode. In the first horizontal transfer unit, one of the horizontal transfer electrodes includes a plurality of column direction electrodes that are disposed adjacent to one another in the vertical direction and transfer the signal charges via the intermediate transfer unit to the second horizontal transfer unit. The vertical transfer electrode, the horizontal transfer electrodes, and the branch transfer electrode are a single layer electrode.

Solid-state imaging device, method of driving solid-state imaging device, and camera

A driving method used for a solid-state imaging device according to the present invention includes: imaging an object for a first storage time when a shutter is open, in a first state that is a state where either at least a part of the peripheral circuitry is suspended or a consumption current of the peripheral circuitry is limited; imaging, in the first state, a dark output signal image including only a dark output for a second storage time when the shutter is closed; converting the dark output signal image to correspond to the image obtained for the first storage time and subtracting, from the signal image of the object, the converted dark output signal image or converting the dark output signal image to correspond to the image obtained for the second storage time and subtracting, from the signal image of the object, the converted dark output signal image.

Driving method for solid-state imaging device and solid-state imaging device

In a method for forming a lens according to the present invention, a digging step of digging a depression includes a depositing substep of depositing a pattern film on a surface of a base film, the pattern film being made of a second material and in an inverted shape of the depression, a forming substep of forming an embedding film to flatten the surface of the pattern film, the embedding film being made of a third material and embedding therein the pattern film, and an etch-back substep of conducting etch-back on a surface of the embedding film toward the base film to dig the depression, and an etch rate of the second material is higher than an etch rate of the third material.

Method for forming on-chip lens including process of forming depression by using etch-back method, and method for manufacturing solid-state imaging apparatus including process of forming in-layer micro lens using the method for forming on-chip lens

Provided is a manufacturing method of a CCD solid-state imaging device having such an impurity concentration distribution with which shading is reduced and formation of a buried channel endowed with a large saturation signal charge amount is made possible. The manufacturing method includes: an oxide layer forming step of forming an oxide layer () on a semiconductor substrate (); an ion implantation step of performing ion implantation through the oxide layer () to the semiconductor substrate () thereby forming a well in a position corresponding to a charge transfer portion; and an insulation layer forming step of performing insulation layer forming processing to the oxide layer () having undergone the ion implantation step, at least in a position corresponding to the well.

Manufacturing method of solid-state imaging device

A solid-state image-taking system including a gate voltage control unitand a substrate voltage control unit, for preventing generation of a defective image such as a residual image, without increasing the read voltage. The gate voltage control unitapplies the read voltage to the gate electrodeduring the read period. The substrate voltage control unitapplies a stationary reverse bias voltage steadily to the semiconductor substrateto cause electric charge excessively stored in the light-to-electric conversion unitto overflow to a side of the semiconductor substrate, and not to the charge storage unit, and applies, during part or all of the read period, a specific reverse bias voltage that raises a potential barrier between the semiconductor substrateand the wellto be higher than a height thereof when the stationary reverse bias voltage is applied.

Solid-state image-taking apparatus, solid-state image-taking system, and apparatus and method for driving the solid-state image-taking apparatus

The photosensor includes a semiconductor substrate provided with a light receiving portion for converting incident light and a signal readout portion; a light shielding layer formed above the light receiving portion and having an aperture; and a transparent insulating layer formed so as to fill the aperture. A relationship 2nW&#x2267;&#x3bb;max is satisfied, where W represents a minimum width of the aperture, n represents an average refractive index of the insulating layer in a region between a position corresponding to the uppermost surface of the light shielding layer and the surface of the light receiving portion, and &#x3bb;max represents a maximum wavelength of the sensitive wavelength range of the light receiving portion. The aperture rate of the light receiving portion can be reduced without causing a sensitivity decrease and a change in spectral characteristics on the long wavelength side of the effective wavelength range.

Photosensor and solid state imaging device

The invention provides a solid state imaging device with high photosensitivity. A lens resin coated on the surface of the device is subjected to an exposing treatment using lens masks and a developing treatment, thereby forming lens patterns. After improving the light transmittance of the lens patterns through irradiation of UV, the lens patterns are heated so as to form micro lenses each in the shape of a hemisphere. At this point, the heating temperature is set at a temperature lower than a temperature at which the lens patterns are completely melted. As a result, the lens patterns are prevented from flowing out, and a distance between the adjacent micro lenses becomes equal to a distance between the adjacent lens patterns. Accordingly, by making small the distance between the adjacent lens patterns, the light receiving area of each micro lens can be enlarged.

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Akira Tsukamoto