Patent ID: 8013369

Claim:
A photoelectric conversion apparatus comprising: a semiconductor substrate of a first conduction type; a first semiconductor region of the first conduction type; a second semiconductor region of a second conduction type, which isolates the semiconductor substrate and the first semiconductor region from each other; a pixel unit in which pixels are arranged two-dimensionally, each pixel including: a photoelectric conversion unit with a third semiconductor region of the first conduction type having an impurity concentration higher than that of the first semiconductor region and a fourth semiconductor region of the second conduction type, an amplifying transistor for readout signals from the photoelectric conversion unit, and an element isolation region that electrically isolates an active region where the photoelectric conversion unit is arranged from an active region where the amplifying transistor is arranged; a fifth semiconductor region of the second conduction type, which is arranged in the first semiconductor region along a side surface and a bottom surface of the element isolation region of each pixel; and a sixth semiconductor region of the second conduction type, which is arranged between source and drain regions of an amplifying transistor of each pixel and is the second semiconductor region, in a region below a gate electrode of the amplifying transistor, wherein a contact for supplying a reference voltage to the sixth semiconductor region, via the fifth semiconductor region, is arranged in the active region where a photoelectric conversion unit of each pixel is arranged, wherein the contact includes a plug for supplying the reference voltage, and a seventh semiconductor region of the second conduction type to which the plug is electrically connected, and wherein an eighth semiconductor region of the second conduction type, which has an impurity concentration lower than that of the seventh semiconductor region, is arranged between the seventh semiconductor region and the third semiconductor region.