Evaluation of Monolithic Silicon-On-Insulator Pixel
Devices Thinned to 100 m
K. Shinsho1, K. Hara1, Y. Arai2, Y. Ikemoto2, T. Kohriki2, T. Miyoshi2
Abstract– We are developing monolithic pixel devices utilizing a
0.2 μm Fully Depleted Silicon-on-Insulator (FD-SOI) process
technology provided by OKI Semiconductor. We have investigatedthinning the devices to 100 μm. Thinning enhances the feature ofmonolithic SOI sensors in views of minimizing the overall materialand realizing full depleted devices. The latter is necessary forbackside illumination, which is desirable to enhance the photosensitivity. The wafer was thinned commercially by DISCO Corp.
Small increase in the leakage current was observed associated withthe thinning process. Excellent performance to infrared and red laser
lights was obtained, demonstrating realization of the fully depleted
pixel device.

effective to suppress the effects of the backside detector bias
to the electronics operation, so called the back-gate effects.
One of the advantages of monolithic SOI devices isreduction of the overall detector material. The advantage
becomes more striking by thinning the sensor. We thinned awafer to 100 m by TAIKO process [7]. We examined thethinning process induced damage through the leakage current
increase, and measured the warp profile. With 100 mthickness, the device can be fully depleted. We evaluated theresponse to infrared and red lasers injected from the front andback sides.

I. INTRODUCTION
of pixel sensors is crucial in several applications.
TIn high-energy
physics experiments, for example, theHINNING

number of sensor layers tends to be large while requiring
thinner sensors in order to reduce multiple Coulomb scattering[1]. This trend is a result of required smaller pixel sizes anddevelopment of low noise amplifiers where sensors ofapproximately 100 m thickness can provide an adequate
signal to noise ratio for traversing charged particle detection.
In photo-imaging applications, back illumination is desirable
to enhance the photo sensitivity [2], [3]. This is particularly
important for pixels with smaller sizes, since the on-pixel
structures may occupy the substantial area reducing the area
necessary for front illumination. Thinning is mandatory in ourCzochralski grown substrate for full depletion, which isrequired in back illumination.
We are developing monolithic pixel devices [4], [5], [6]based on a 0.2 m silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology
provided by OKI Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Fig. 1 illustrates
the schematics of our SOI pixel device. By using bondedwafers, we adopt a high resistivity (approximately 400 Ωcm)
n-type substrate as the sensitive part and a normal resistivity(18 Ωcm) p-type SOI silicon as the electronics part. The SOI
silicon of 40 nm thickness and the substrate of 725 m, asprocessed, are separated by a 200 nm thick buried oxide(BOX) layer. In our standard procedure, the backside isground to 260 m and aluminum is deposited for backside
contacts. The buried p-well (BPW) in Fig. 1 is a novel
technique recently adopted [4]. The BPWs are either tied tothe pixels or to the ground in the peripheral circuits, thus thepotentials underneath the BOX layer can be fixed, which isManuscript received November 12, 2010.
K. Shinsho and K. Hara are with Graduate School of Pure and Applied
Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8571 Japan(telephone: +81-29-853-4270, e-mail: hara @px.tsukuba.c.jp).
Y. Arai, Y. Ikemoto, T. Kohriki and T. Miyoshi are with Institute ofparticle and Nuclear Studies, High Energy Accelerator Organization (KEK),Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801 Japan

Fig. 1. Schematics of the SOI monolithic pixel device. The pixels,
fabricated through the BOX layer, are connected to the SOI MOS
transistors via metal layers on top of the device. The device can be biased
from the back or from the front n+ contact (Bias Ring).

II. INTPIX3 AND THINNING PROCEDURE
The SOI fabrication was carried out on a basis of multi
project wafer runs, processing various types of sensors on asame 8” wafer. We picked up INTPIX3b chips [4] in order toquantify the thinning quality. The INTPIX3b chip is a signal
integration type device having an array of 128  128 pixels of20 m square. The outer chip size is 5 mm square. Each pixel
has an active pixel type circuit (see Fig. 2) integrated. Thepixel charges extracted out one by one are digitized by a 12bit ADC, which is implemented in a TCP/IP based readoutsystem, SEABAS [8].
The INTPIX3 is a first device where BPW's are integrated.
In order to optimize the BPW configuration, the pixels are
divided into eight regions and different configurations areexamined. Fig. 3 illustrates one of the configurations we usedin this study. There is a window of 5 m square where there isno metal layers at the center, allowing front illumination.

Fig. 2. Diagram of the INTPIX3 on-pixel circuit. The charge stored in
Cstore is sent out to the common column line.

Fig. 4. IV curves of INTPIX3b chips (top) before and (above) afterthinning. The thicknesses are 725 m and 100m, respectively.
Fig. 3. Configuration around the pixel. The pixel size is 20 m square,
having four octagonal p+ implants. The BPW (yellowish) which is tied tothe implants covers the almost entire pixel area. At the center of the pixel,
there is a no metal region of 5 m square.

The wafer was thinned to 100 m by TAIKO processprovided by DISCO Corp. [9] With this process, the outeredge of the wafer is left un-ground. So thinned wafer is selfsustainable, reducing the risk of handling such as at stressrelief processing and backside aluminizing. The stress relief
process removes the damages and residual strain created at
grinding, consisting of dry polishing, chemical mechanicalpolishing, and wet and dry etchings. Finally the backside wasaluminized.
III. LEAKAGE CURRENT
The leakage currents of the same INTPIX3b chips were
measured on wafer before and on diced chips after thinning.
Fig. 4 compares the I-V curves. The values are normalized at25°C. The numbers in the plots indicate the positions of themeasured chips distributed over on the wafer (see Fig. 5). The
breakdown seen around 125 V – 130 V is caused at thecorners of the HV ring (see Fig. 1), which is not affected by
the thinning process. There are no data available for chips 1 to
7 after thinning: They were used for packaging and otherstudies.

Fig. 5. Leakage currents at 100 V of 29 chips before thinning. Eachcolored area is 20 mm square, corresponding to the unit of the maskpattern. The measured chips, one per unit, are distributed over the wholewafer area.

The leakage current increases at 100 V are summarized inFig. 6. All chips showed an increase by 12% to 26% of thevalues before thinning. There is a tendency that the increase islarger for the lower chips. As described later, the thinned
devices are fully depleted at 90 V. The increase should be
attributed to the backside structure, residual defects, anddevelopment of field lines towards the sides.

the front window of 5 m square. As expected, the chargeincreases linearly with V and deviates from the line above 80
V. For 260 m thick INTPIX3 pixels, the collected charge
increases linearly up to the maximum voltage of 140 V.

Fig. 6. Leakage current increase in percentage at 100 V.

IV. HEIGHT PROFILE
The height profiles of thinned devices were measured inblocks with side lengths of a few cm. Fig. 7 is an example ofthe profile measured for a block of 40 mm  80 mm. With
respect to the plane defined by the three corners, the center ofthe block and the fourth corner are high by 0.4 mm and 0.05mm, respectively. Other blocks showed profiles similar inshape, and the heights are characterized by the side lengths.
Such convex profiles with the electronics side up can becaused by different coefficients of thermal expansion between
silicon and SiO2, namely due to the residual strain created at
the SOI processing. If the strain due to the thinning issubstantial, the shapes may differ, although we cannot extractsuch contribution from the present measurement. The warp of
diced chips is not large and can be manageable.

Fig. 8. Collected charge for IR laser injected from the top. The abscissa issquare root of the bias voltage.

The ceramic package for the thinned INTPIX3 had athrough hole under the sensitive region made with a waterjet
cutter, and the backside aluminum was removed so that thedevice can be back illuminated. The response to thecollimated IR laser is plotted in Fig. 9, which shows a similar
dependence on the bias as the one obtained from front
illumination.
Also shown in the figure are the results for a red (634 nm)
laser [11]. Because the red laser was spotted to about 1 mm,the response was evaluated from a single pixel, or fromaverages of neighboring pixels, all of the curves overlapping
each other. The collected charge increases rapidly about 70 V
and is saturated above 100 V, suggesting the device is fully
depleted above around 90 V.

Fig. 7. Height profile of a block of 40 mm  80 mm. The SOI circuits areon the convex side.

V. RESPONSE TO IR AND RED LASERS
We estimated the depletion depth by collecting the charge
to 1064 nm IR laser as a function of the detector bias V. Since
this laser penetrates the Si substrate [10], the collected charge
which is proportional to the depleted depth should be
proportional to V at biases below the full depletion.
Fig. 8 shows the collected charge of a 100m thick
INTPIX3 when the IR laser was collimated and injected inside

Fig. 9. Collected charge for IR laser and red laser injected from the back.
The outputs are normalized at 100 V and above.

We notice that the charges are collected even at lower
voltages while the red light should be absorbed at the surface:
3 m is the absorption length in silicon. This suggests that afraction of the carriers diffuse out the non-depleted region andare collected.
The backside aluminum was removed only for the pixels
at center. In order to investigate the effect of diffusion for thered laser, we evaluated the response of the pixels that arecovered by the residual aluminum. The outputs are plotted inFig. 10 at fixed bias voltages for the pixels across a column.
The unit of CA is the pixel size 20 m. The pixels with CA 81
and above are covered but show response, which is dependent
on the bias. At a few 10 V, two to three pixels at the boundary
are responding, meaning a diffusion of 40 m to 60 m ispossible. At 100 V and above, there is a negligible
contribution since the device is fully depleted and thediffusion is minimized.

Fig. 10. Collected charge for red laser injected from the back. The abscissa
is in unit of 20 m extending to the pixels covered by aluminum.

VI. SUMMARY
We are successful in thinning monolithic SOI pixel devices
to 100 m. There is a small increase in the leakage current andin the breakdown onset voltage. The thinned device wascharacterized by injecting penetrating infrared laser both fromthe front and back, and with back illuminated red laser. The
bias dependence of the collected charge is as expected,
showing that the device is fully depleted at around 90 V.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to thank S. Kim of University of Tsukuba
for his continuing support to this project. This work is
supported by KEK Detector Technology Project and JSPS
KAKENHI (21244040), and also by VLSI Design andEducation Center (VDEC), The University of Tokyo, with thecollaboration of the Cadence Corporation and Mentor
Graphics Corporation.
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