United Microelectronics Corp.

Hsin-Ping Wu

Chia-Huei Lin

Ming-I Wang

Hung-Chao Kao

Yu-Tsung Lin

Ching-Hung Kao

An image sensor comprises a substrate, a plurality of photoelectric transducer devices, an interconnect structure, at least one dielectric isolator and a back-side alignment mark. The substrate has a front-side surface and a back-side surface opposite to the front-side surface. The interconnect structure is disposed on the front-side surface. The photoelectric transducer devices are formed on the front-side surface. The dielectric isolator extends downwards into the substrate from the back-side surface in order to isolate the photoelectric transducer devices. The back-side alignment mark extends downwards into the substrate from the back-side surface and references to a front-side alignment mark previously formed on the front-side surface.

Image sensor and method for fabricating the same

A CMOS image sensor, in which an implantation process is performed on substrate under isolation structures each disposed between two adjacent photosensor cell structures. The implantation process is a destructive implantation to form lattice effects/trap centers. No defect repair process is carried out after the implantation process is performed. The implants can reside at the isolation structures or in the substrate under the isolation structures. Dark leakage and crosstalk are thus suppressed.

Method of making a CMOS image sensor and method of suppressing dark leakage and crosstalk for a CMOS image sensor

The present disclosure provides a contiguous microlens array, which consists of a plurality of touching microlenses, wherein the adjacent microlenses are connected to each other to form a contiguous microlens array and curvatures of every angle cross section of each microlens are the same. The shape of the curved surface of a microlens in the microlens array is selectively adjusted according to its position in the array and the incident angle of light incident thereto.

Contiguous microlens array

A method of fabricating a contiguous microlens array is disclosed. First, an array of photoresist patterns is formed, wherein each photoresist pattern has a substantially circular or polygonal shape in a top view and neighboring photoresist patterns are connected with each other or close to each other. Then a reflow step is performed to heat the photoresist patterns thereby rounding a surface of each photoresist pattern and connecting the neighboring photoresist patterns that are close to each other. Finally, a fixing step is performed to fix a shape of each photoresist pattern. The shape of the curved surface of a microlens in the microlens array is selectively adjusted according to its position in the array and the incident angle of light incident thereto.

Method of fabricating contiguous microlens array

A method for fabricating a semiconductor device includes steps as following. First, a substrate with an edge-mark is provided. The substrate has a front-side surface and a back-side surface opposite to each other. The front-side surface has an active region and a peripheral region with an alignment mark formed thereon. Next, an optical shielding layer is formed over the back-side surface of the substrate. Next, a first photo mask is aligned to the substrate by standing on the edge-mark. Next, a portion of the optical shielding layer corresponding with the alignment mark is removed by using the first photo mask. Next, a second photo mask is aligned to the substrate by standing on the alignment mark. Then, a portion of the optical shielding layer corresponding with the active region is removed to expose a portion of the substrate by using the second photo mask for forming an optical shielding pattern.

Method for fabricating semiconductor device

CMOS image sensor, method of making the same, and method of suppressing dark leakage and crosstalk for CMOS image sensor

A contiguous microlens array including a plurality of contiguous microlenses is described. Each microlens has substantially circular contours at the heights higher than the connection sections of the microlens with neighboring microlenses, and has substantially partially circular contours at the heights on the connection sections adjacent to the neighboring microlenses. The shape of the curved surface of a microlens in the microlens array is selectively adjusted according to its position in the array and the incident angle of light incident thereto.

Contiguous microlens array and photomask for defining the same

A method for forming a color filter is provided. A substrate having a passivation layer thereon is provided. The passivation layer has at least one trench therein within a peripheral region of the substrate. A first color filter layer is formed over the passivation layer to fill the trench by performing a first spin-on coating process with a first spin rate. Thereafter, the first color filter layer is patterned so as to form a plurality of first color filter blocks in a display region of the substrate and expose a portion of the passivation layer. A second color filter layer is formed over the passivation layer by performing a second spin-on coating process with a second spin rate, which is larger than the first spin rate. Next, the second color filter layer is patterned to form a plurality of second color filter blocks between the first color filter blocks respectively.

Method for forming color filter

A method for forming microlenses of different curvatures is described, wherein a substrate having at least a first and a second areas different in height is provided. A transparent photosensitive layer having a planar surface is formed on the substrate and then patterned into at least two islands of different thicknesses respectively over the first area and the second area. The at least two islands are heated and softened to form at least two microlenses of different curvatures respectively over the first area and the second area, wherein the higher an area is, the smaller the curvature of the corresponding microlens is.

Method for forming microlenses of different curvatures and fabricating process of solid-state image sensor

An optical proximity correction mask used for fabricating a color filter includes a substrate, a mask pattern and a mending pattern. Wherein, the mask pattern is disposed on the substrate. The mask pattern and the transferred pattern, being transferred to the color filter, are not matched and cause occurrence of a light leaking region in the color filter. The mending pattern is disposed over the substrate around the periphery of the mask pattern and corresponds to the light leaking region.

Optical proximity correction mask and method of fabricating color filter

A method for forming a color filter is provided. The method comprises steps of providing a substrate having a passivasion layer formed thereon. The substrate has at least one complementary metal-oxide semiconductor formed therein and the passivasion layer has at least trench formed therein in a peripheral region of the substrate. At least two adjacent color filter blocks are sequentially formed over the passivasion layer and the color filter blocks comprises a first color filter block and a second color filter block. The first color filter block and the second color filter block are disposed within a display region of the substrate. Moreover, the material for forming the first color filter, which is formed prior to the formation of the second color filter block, further fills the trench in the peripheral region simultaneously with a formation of the first color filter block.

A complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor layout structure is described. The CMOS image sensor layout structure includes a substrate, a plurality of light sensing devices, a plurality of transistors and a plurality of color-filtering film layers. The substrate has a pixel array region comprising a plurality of pixels. Each pixel has a light sensing region and an active device region. The pixels are isolated from one another by isolation structures and the light sensing regions have different sizes. The light sensing devices are defined separately within the respective light sensing regions. The transistors are disposed within the respective active device region. The color-filtering film layers are disposed separately above the pixels to form a color-filtering array.

Growing community of inventors

Hsinchu, Taiwan

Hsin-Ping Wu