Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Masataka Ito

Nobuhiko Sato

Masaki Kurihara

Kyouhei Watanabe

Daisuke Shimoyama

Takao Yonehara

Yasuhiro Sekine

Hitoshi Shindo

Yasuo Kakizaki

Hiroshi Miyabayashi

Kenji Yamagata

Yasushi Nakata

Ryuji Moriwaki

Takashi Tsuboi

Kazutaka Momoi

Mikio Arakawa

Noriaki Honma

Kazuhito Takanashi

To realize simplification of a process of forming hollow portions in a solid-state imaging apparatus, a plurality of light receiving portions is formed on a semiconductor substrate, and color filter layers as hollow portion forming layers are formed above the semiconductor substrate (FIG.A). A sealable layer for opening boundary portions of the color filter layers is formed on the color filter layers (FIG.B). Hollow portions are formed on side surfaces of the color filter layer by etching using the sealable layer as a mask (FIG.C). The sealable layer is heated and softened to connect mutually adjacent sealable layers to form a sealing layer for sealing the aperture regions of the hollow portions (FIG.D).

Manufacturing method of solid-state imaging apparatus

When forming a hollow portion between each color filter, in order to realize the formation of the hollow portions with a narrower width, a plurality of light receiving portions are formed on the upper surface of a semiconductor substrate, a plurality of color filters corresponding to each of the light receiving portions are formed above the semiconductor substrate, a photoresist is formed on each color filter, side walls are formed on the side surfaces of the photoresist, and a hollow portion is formed between each color filter by performing etching using at least the side walls as a mask.

Solid state image pickup apparatus and method for manufacturing the same

A color filteris formed above a semiconductor substrate SB, in an area above a predetermined light receiving portion among a plurality of light receiving portions. A sacrificial layeris formed on upper and side of the first color filter. Color filtersandare formed above the semiconductor substrate SB, in areas above other light receiving portions adjacent to the predetermined light receiving portion, to expose at least part of the upper surface area of the first color filteron the sacrificial layer. The sacrificial layeris etched to remove the upper and side areas of the color filteron the sacrificial layerto form hollow portionsbetween the color filterand the color filterand between the color filterand the color filter

A process of forming an isolation region that defines an active region on a semiconductor wafer, a process of forming a photoelectric conversion element in the active region defined by the isolation region, and a process of forming a micro lens over the photoelectric conversion element are provided. Alignment in the process of forming the photoelectric conversion element and alignment in the process of forming the micro lens are performed using an alignment mark formed in the process of forming the isolation region.

Method for manufacturing photoelectric conversion device

A device comprises a photoelectric conversion portion including a light receiving surface, and a condensing structure which condenses light to the photoelectric conversion portion, wherein in the condensing structure, a first insulating film and a second insulating film having a refractive index higher than that of the first insulating film are laid out in a plane perpendicular to a normal passing through a center of the light receiving surface such that a density of the second insulating film is higher in a central portion of the plane than in a peripheral portion of the plane, and a layout pattern of the first insulating film and the second insulating film in the plane includes a portion having a dimension not more than a maximum wavelength of a visible light range.

Device and imaging system

A method of fabricating a photomask used to form a lens. The method includes the steps of generating mask pattern data for each of a plurality of grid cells constituting a mask pattern for the lens, and fabricating the photomask based on the mask pattern data. The step of generating the mask pattern data includes acquiring data which represents a transmitted light distribution required for the photomask to fabricate the lens, in which the transmitted light distribution includes a quantity of transmitted light in each of the plurality of grid cells, and determining whether to place a shield on each of the plurality of grid cells by binarizing the quantity of transmitted light in each of the plurality of grid cells in order of increasing or decreasing distance from a center of the mask pattern using an error diffusion method.

Method of fabricating a photomask used to form a lens

A method of generating mask pattern data of a photomask used to form microlenses divides a pattern formation surface of a mask pattern to be used for the photomask into a plurality of grid cells, acquires data that represent a transmitted light distribution of the mask pattern to be used for the photomask, determines whether to place a shield on each of the plurality of grid cells by binarizing the plurality of grid cells in order of increasing or decreasing distance from a center of the pattern formation surface using an error diffusion method, to acquire the transmitted light distribution, and generates mask pattern data that represent an arrangement of the shields, based on the determination.

Mask pattern data generating method, information processing apparatus, photomask fabrication system, and image sensing apparatus

An SOI substrate which has a thick SOI layer is first prepared. Then, the SOI layer is thinned to a target film thickness using as a unit a predetermined thickness not more than that of one lattice. This thinning is performed by repeating a unit thinning step which includes an oxidation step of oxidizing the surface of the SOI layer by the predetermined thickness not more than that of one lattice and a removal step of selectively removing silicon oxide formed by the oxidation. The SOI layer of the SOI substrate is chemically etched by supplying a chemical solution to the SOI layer, and the film thickness of the etched SOI layer is measured. When the measured film thickness of the SOI layer has a predetermined value, a process of chemically etching the SOI layer ends.

Substrate manufacturing method and substrate processing apparatus

This invention provides a method of manufacturing a substrate having a thin buried insulating film. An insulating layer () is formed on a single-crystal Si substrate (). Ions are implanted into the substrate () through the insulating layer () to form an ion-implanted layer (). The insulating layer () is thinned down to form a thin insulating layer (). A thus prepared first substrate is placed on a second substrate () to form a bonded substrate stack (). After that, the bonded substrate stack () is split at the ion-implanted layer ().

Substrate manufacturing method

A method for annealing an SOI in which two annealing steps are followed by a cooling step. During the second annealing step, the annealing temperature is from 993&#xb0; C. to the melting point of silicon. During the cooling step, the cooling rate is not less than 0.12&#xb0; C./sec when a temperature is from 993&#xb0; C. to 775&#xb0; C.

SOI annealing method

The number of defects (HF defects) in the SOI layer of an SOI substrate is reduced. In an annealing method of annealing an SOI substrate in a reducing atmosphere at a temperature equal to or less than the melting point of a semiconductor, annealing is executed in a state wherein a flow of a reducing atmospheric gas parallel to the surface of the SOI substrate is generated near this surface.

Semiconductor-on-insulator annealing method

In a bonded semiconductor member, microgaps are formed on a substrate side of a bonding interface to thereby constitute a gettering site, and heavy metal elements contaminated in the substrate are captured by the microgaps. The bonded semiconductor member is manufactured by interposing the microgaps between two substrates.

Semiconductor member, semiconductor device and manufacturing methods thereof

An SOI substrate having semiconductor base plate and a single crystal semiconductor layer with interposition of an insulating layer is prepared is reclaimed through a first removal step of removing the single crystal semiconductor layer , and a second removal step of removing selectively the insulation layer . Thereby the loss of the thickness of the base plate in the reclamation is decreased in the reproduction of the SOI substrate.

Process of reclamation of SOI substrate and reproduced substrate

The HF defect density in an SOI is reduced. After annealing step (S ) of annealing an SOI at a temperature between the melting point (e.g., 993&deg; C.) of a semiconductor metal compound (e.g., nickel silicide) formed from a metal and the semiconductor material of the crystal semiconductor of the SOI (inclusive) and the melting point of the semiconductor material (inclusive), the temperature is reduced such that the cooling rate within the temperature range from the melting point of the semiconductor metal compound and the production temperature (e.g., 775&deg; C.) of the semiconductor metal compound becomes 0.12&deg; C./sec or more.

Soi annealing method for reducing HF defects, with lamp, without crystal original particle (COP)

The HF defect density in an SOI is reduced. An SOI having a thickness of 200 nm or less is annealed in an inert atmosphere at a temperature between the eutectic temperature (e.g., 966&deg; C.) of a semiconductor metal compound (e.g., nickel silicide) formed from a metal and the semiconductor material of the crystal semiconductor of the SOI (inclusive) and the melting point of the semiconductor material (inclusive).

Growing community of inventors

Chigasaki, Japan

Masataka Ito