Patent ID: 8492695

Claim:
A solid-state image pickup apparatus, comprising: a substrate provided with a pixel array portion constituted of a plurality of pixels each having a photoelectric converter, the photoelectric converter converting incident light into an electrical signal; a wiring layer including a plurality of wirings and an insulating layer that covers the plurality of wirings, the plurality of wirings being laminated above the substrate; and a waveguide to guide light to each of the photoelectric converters of the plurality of pixels, the waveguide being formed in the wiring layer, the waveguide being formed to have a waveguide exit end from which light exits the waveguide so that a distance between the waveguide exit end and a surface of the photoelectric converter that receives light from the waveguide become shorter, as wavelengths of light guided by the waveguide are longer, wherein the photoelectric converters are located at the same, or substantially the same, depth within the substrate, and the distance between the waveguide exit end and the surface of the photoelectric converter that receives light from the waveguide becomes shorter by varying the location of the exit end and not the depth of the photoelectric converter that receives light from the waveguide, wherein the distance between the waveguide exit end and the surface of the photoelectric converter is determined based on an equation, wf=λL/πW, where L is the distance between the waveguide exit end and the surface of the photoelectric converter, wf is a radius of the waveguide exit end, λ is a wavelength of the light guided by the waveguide, and W is a radius of a spot formed on the surface of the photoelectric converter.