The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 10, 2002
Filed:
Jun. 11, 1999
Jui-Hsiang Pan, Hsin-Chu, TW;
United Microelectronics Corp., Hsin-Chu, TW;
Abstract
The present invention relates to a photo diode and its method of formation. The photo diode comprises a photo sensor area positioned in a predetermined region on the substrate, and a dielectric area positioned on the substrate surrounding the photo sensor area. The dielectric area comprises a field oxide layer covering a portion of the dielectric area and at least one dummy active area surrounding the photo sensor area, and a narrow slot of the field oxide layer exists between each dummy active area and the photo sensor area. In the formation of the dielectric area, the dummy active area reduces the thickness of the field oxide layer in the slot and decreases the stress causes by the field oxide layer. So the leakage current of the photo diode in unlighted status can be decreased and improve the signal to noise ratio.