Patent ID: 7732239

Claim:
A method for manufacturing a solid-state image sensor, comprising the steps of: (a) providing a substrate, (b) forming a first photoresist over the substrate, (c) exposing the first photoresist, (d) after the step (c), developing the first photoresist and patterning the first photoresist, and (e) forming, in the substrate, an element isolation structure for defining an active region having a pixel of the solid-state image sensor formed therein in the substrate, by using the first photoresist patterned in the step (c), the step (c) further comprising the steps of: (c-1) exposing a first region of the first photoresist; and (c-2) exposing a second region of the first photoresist which region is adjacent to the first region, wherein a dividing line between the first region and the second region in the step (c) is located at least over a region of the substrate in which the active region is defined.