Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Comp. Ltd.

Silicon Motion, Inc.

Wei-Lin Chen

Kuo-Cheng Lee

Chun-Hao Chou

Ching-Chung Su

Jiech-Fun Lu

Hung-Wen Hsu

Chun-Liang Lu

Yu-Cheng Tsai

Chun-wen Cheng

Wei-Chuang Wu

Jung-huei Peng

Zih-Jie Huang

Yi-An Wu

An optical device includes a substrate, a first electrode, a second electrode, and a first lens. The first electrode and the second electrode are over the substrate and configured to generate a first electric field. The first lens is between the first electrode and the second electrode and has a focal length that varies in response to the first electric field applied to the first lens.

Optical device and method of manufacturing the same

A grid structure in a pixel array may be at least partially angled or tapered toward a top surface of the grid structure such that the width of the grid structure approaches a near-zero width near the top surface of the grid structure. This permits the spacing between color filter regions in between the grid structure to approach a near-zero spacing near the top surfaces of the color filter regions. The tight spacing of color filter regions provided by the angled or tapered grid structure provides a greater surface area and volume for incident light collection in the color filter regions. Moreover, the width of the grid structure may increase at least partially toward a bottom surface of the grid structure such that the wider dimension of the grid structure near the bottom surface of the grid structure provides optical crosstalk protection for the pixel sensors in the pixel array.

Grid structure with at least partially angled sidewalls

The present invention provides a control method of a flash memory controller. By dividing a plurality of logical address to physical address mapping tables into multiple groups, establishing a group-to-physical address mapping table, a storage unit relationship table and a latest updated storage unit table to manage the flash memory controller, the times of loading the group-to-physical address mapping table into a buffer memory can be reduced, so as to improve the efficiency of the flash memory controller.

Memory device, flash memory controller and associated control method

A semiconductor image sensing structure includes a semiconductor substrate having a front side and a back side, a pixel sensor disposed in the semiconductor substrate, a transistor disposed over the front side of the semiconductor substrate, and a reflective structure disposed over the front side of the semiconductor substrate. A gate structure of the transistor and the reflective structure include a same material. A top surface of the gate structure of the transistor and a top surface of the reflective structure are aligned with each other.

Semiconductor image-sensing structure

A pixel sensor may include a layer stack to reduce and/or block the effects of plasma and etching on a photodiode and/or other lower-level layers. The layer stack may include a first oxide layer, a layer having a band gap that is approximately less than 8.8 electron-Volts (eV), and a second oxide layer. The layer stack may reduce and/or prevent the penetration and absorption of ultraviolet photons resulting from the plasma and etching processes, which may otherwise cause the formation of electron-hole pairs in the substrate in which the photodiode is included.

Pixel sensor including a layer stack to reduce and/or block the effects of plasma processing and etching on the pixel sensor

Implementations described herein reduce electron-hole pair generation due to silicon dangling bonds in pixel sensors. In some implementations, the silicon dangling bonds in a pixel sensor may be passivated by silicon-fluorine (Si—F) bonding in various portions of the pixel sensor such as a transfer gate contact via or a shallow trench isolation region, among other examples. The silicon-fluorine bonds are formed by fluorine implantation and/or another type of semiconductor processing operation. In some implementations, the silicon-fluorine bonds are formed as part of a cleaning operation using fluorine (F) such that the fluorine may bond with the silicon of the pixel sensor. Additionally, or alternatively, the silicon-fluorine bonds are formed as part of a doping operation in which boron (B) and/or another p-type doping element is used with fluorine such that the fluorine may bond with the silicon of the pixel sensor.

Fluorine passivation in a pixel sensor

An image sensor includes a first photodiode and a second photodiode. The image sensor further includes a first color filter over the first photodiode; and a second color filter over the second photodiode. The image sensor further includes a first microlens over the first color filter and a second microlens over the second color filter. The image sensor further includes a first electro-optical (EO) film between the first color filter and the first microlens, wherein a material of the first EO film is configured to change refractive index in response to application of an electrical field. The image sensor further includes a second EO film between the second color filter and the second microlens, wherein a material of the second EO film is configured to change refractive index in response to application of an electrical field.

Image sensor and method of making

Some implementations described herein provide a semiconductor structure. The semiconductor structure includes a first wafer including a first metal structure within a body of the first wafer. The semiconductor structure also includes a second wafer including a second metal structure within a body of the second wafer, where the first wafer is coupled to the second wafer at an interface. The semiconductor structure further includes a metal bonding structure coupled to the first metal structure and the second metal structure and extending through the interface.

Metal bonding structure and manufacturing method thereof

Structures and formation methods of an image sensor structure are provided. The image sensor structure is provided. The image sensor structure includes a substrate, a photodiode component in the substrate, and a grid structure over the substrate. The grid structure includes a bottom dielectric element over the substrate, a reflective element over the bottom dielectric element, and an upper dielectric element over the reflective element. The reflective element has a sidewall which is anti-corrosive in a basic condition and an acidic condition. The image sensor structure also includes a color filter element over the substrate and surrounded by the grid structure. The color filter element is aligned with the photodiode component.

Growing community of inventors

Hsinchu, Taiwan

Wei-Lin Chen