Patent ID: 7416914

Claim:
A method of fabricating a CMOS image sensor, comprising the steps of: forming a metal pad on a pad area of a substrate divided into an active area and the pad area; forming a planarizing layer on the substrate including the metal pad; exposing a surface of the metal pad by selectively removing the planarizing layer; forming a protective layer over the substrate including the exposed portion of the metal pad; coating a color filter resist layer on the protective layer; selectively exposing a portion of the color filter resist layer above the metal pad; coating a microlens resist layer on the color filter resist layer, including the selectively exposed portion; forming a microlens pattern on the color filter layer, including the selectively exposed portion, by selectively exposing portions of the microlens resist layer above the metal pad and each interface between adjacent color filters; developing the microlens resist layer and color filter resist layer to remove the selectively exposed portions of the microlens resist layer and selectively exposed portion of the color filter resist layer; forming a pad opening by selectively removing the protective layer to expose a prescribed surface of the metal pad using the microlens pattern and/or the developed color filter resist layer as a mask; and reflowing the microlens pattern.