Patent ID: 8084836

Claim:
A semiconductor photodetector, comprising: a semiconductor substrate of a first conductive type, one side of said substrate exposed to incident light to be detected; a plurality of pn junction-type photodiodes formed on a side of a detecting surface that is opposite to said incident surface of said semiconductor substrate; and a carrier capturing portion formed between adjacent photodiodes from among said plurality of photodiodes, on said detecting surface side of said semiconductor substrate, wherein said carrier capturing portion has a plurality of carrier capturing regions, respectively including pn-junctions, arranged at intervals, and wherein said carrier capturing portion has, at least for one photodiode among said plurality of photodiodes, at least two carrier capturing regions, between one side of the one photodiode and a corresponding side of an adjacent photodiode facing the one side of the one photodiode, arranged at intervals along an arranging direction parallel to the one side of the one photodiode, each of said plurality of photodiodes comprises a second conductive type impurity semiconductor region, each of said plurality of carrier capturing regions including at least the two carrier capturing regions comprises a second conductive type carrier capturing impurity semiconductor region, and the second conductive type carrier capturing impurity semiconductor regions adjacent each other, corresponding to the carrier capturing regions adjacent each other, are separated by a first conductive type substrate region which is a part of the semiconductor substrate and is provided between the second conductive type carrier capturing impurity semiconductor regions.