Patent ID: 7598584

Claim:
An infrared solid-state image pickup apparatus, comprising: an SOI substrate having a silicon oxide film layer and an SOI layer on a silicon substrate; a detecting portion, which is provided with a PN junction diode formed on the SOI substrate, and converts a temperature change generated by an incident infrared ray to an electric signal; and a support that holds the detecting portion with a space from the silicon substrate of the SOI substrate, wherein a semiconductor layer constituting the PN junction diode has a first doped side and a second doped side doped oppositely to the first doped side, the second doped side having a layered structure, as viewed from a cross section perpendicular to a current flowing direction of the PN junction diode, and an impurity is distributed in the semiconductor layer such that major carriers or excessive minority carriers flowing in the semiconductor layer flow more in a central layer of the second doped side of the semiconductor layer than in a peripheral layer thereof as viewed from said cross section perpendicular to said current flowing direction.