Patent ID: 8405751

Claim:
An image sensor pixel structure comprising: a semiconductor substrate including a shallow trench isolation structure and a semiconductor material portion, wherein said shallow trench isolation structure laterally encloses said semiconductor material portion, said semiconductor material portion has a contiguous semiconductor surface and includes four photodiodes, four channel regions, and a common floating diffusion region, said contiguous semiconductor surface extends over an entirety of said semiconductor material portion, each of said four channel regions is directly adjoined to one of said four photodiodes and to said common floating diffusion region; and four gate stacks overlying each of said four channel regions, wherein each of said four gate stacks includes a gate dielectric and a gate electrode, and wherein said four photodiodes, said four channel regions, said common floating diffusion region, and said four gate stacks constitute four field effect transistors in which said common floating diffusion region constitutes a common drain.