Patent Application: US-84358310-A

Abstract:
a high - speed , high - sensitivity demodulation sensor usable for e . g . time - of - flight application uses a back side illuminated image sensor chip , in which the photo - generated charges are first transferred to a demodulation area , from which the charges are then sampled and stored on at least one specific storage node . the storage node is electrically isolated from the sensitive area . such a pixel might find its use specifically in 3d time - of - flight imaging given its improvements in sensitivity because the presented invention allows to design pixel with up to 100 % fill factor and enables charge detection even if the charge generation by the photon occurs deep in the silicon substrate .

Description:
a drawback of state - of - the - art tof pixels is that the pixels 101 , 102 suffer from quite a low fill factor . this is mainly due to the electrical circuits required in the tof pixel . a front side illuminated ( fsi ) sensor 100 with such a low fill factor is illustrated in fig1 . the metal layers 104 cover part of the pixel area and hinder the arriving photons 110 to reach the sensitive areas 101 , 102 . fig2 illustrates a back side illuminated ( bsi ) senor 200 , which has increased fill factor since the effective are of the sensitive areas 101 and 102 is larger . a second drawback of 3d tof pixel is the aforementioned near - infra red ( nir ) photon penetration in the silicon . while the demodulation generally takes place close to the front side of the silicon surface , the electrons need to be first of all detected deeply in the silicon and secondly transferred quickly to the corresponding storage node . in fsi imager sensors , the depletion region usually reaches depths into the silicon of a few microns , depending on applied voltages and used implants . in bsi pixels however , the substrate 103 is preferably backthinned to e . g . less than 100 micrometers , and preferably to less than 50 micrometers and less than about 20 micrometers in some embodiments . therefore even electrons generated deeply in the substrate 103 can be detected . therefore , a backthinned bsi pixel becomes ideal for 3d tof system working with nir illumination . as shown in fig3 , an issue using bsi process for 3d tof represents the storage of the electrons . while in standard intensity the imager sensitivity node is directly used as storage node , and 3d tof pixels require clear physical separation of the photo - sensitive area and the storage nodes . on a bsi process , different implants are used to generate built - in drift fields that transfer the electrons generated in the substrate 103 towards the demodulation area 112 and only from there to the storage nodes 114 . so , all photo - generated electrons have to pass the demodulation stage to finally get transferred into the appropriate storage node 114 . therefore , a barrier 116 has to be built to avoid leakage of electrons from the sensitive area 108 to the storage nodes 114 . fig3 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the inventive sensor 200 showing two pixels 101 , 102 . the device is illuminated from the back side . in the sensitive area 108 , the impinging photons 110 generate electron - hole pairs . the electrons are transferred from the sensitive area 108 into the demodulation region 112 . from there , the electrons are then directed to one of the storage nodes 114 . the storage nodes 114 themselves are isolated from the sensitive area 108 by a charge barrier 116 . that is , no charge carrier can flow from the sensitive area 108 into the storage sites 114 . the storage areas 114 have to be designed carefully . by the electron barrier 116 , one can almost perfectly avoid the electron diffusion from the sensitive area 108 into the storage node 114 , however , the generation of photo - electrons directly in the storage 114 node has to be minimized by design . one option to reduce photo - electron generation in the storage node 114 is to use micro lenses 120 , 122 . the micro - lenses 120 , 122 focus the light beam on the central sensitive area 108 of the pixel 102 . hence , photons getting into the storage area 114 are minimized or even completely avoided . fig4 illustrates is an embodiment of the present invention based on electrons as charge carriers . however , the invention is not restricted to that . an embodiment illustrated in fig4 shows built - in drift fields that transfer the electrons into the demodulation region 118 , which is above transfer gate 1 ( tg 1 ) and transfer gate 2 ( tg 2 ). the barrier is created from a deep n - well 210 and shallow p - wells 212 over the storage nodes under integration gates intg 1 , intg 2 . this prevents charges from flowing from the sensitive area directly into the storage nodes , which are integration gate 1 ( intg 1 ) and integration gate 2 ( intg 2 ). the out - gates ( outg 1 , outg 2 ) serve as a barrier between the sense node diffusions ( sens 1 , sens 2 ) and the integration gates intg 1 , intg 2 . in the illustrated diagram , switching tg 1 between 0v and 5v and tg 2 inversely from 5v and 0v , the electrons arriving in the demodulation region 118 are steered into either the storage node 1 ( intg 1 ) or the storage node 2 ( intg 2 ). therefore , switching tg 1 and tg 2 enables high speed sampling of the photo - generated electrons . fig5 illustrates an alternative embodiment , where the charges are directly transferred from the demodulation region into two diffusion nodes sens 1 , sens 2 . the demodulation is still done on transfer gates tg 1 , tg 2 . as before , the deep n - well 210 and p - wells 212 prevent charge from directly entering the diffusion nodes sens 1 , sens 2 . fig6 illustrates an alternative embodiment that includes micro lenses 120 , 122 attached or formed on the backside of the substrate of the sensor 200 . as illustrated in fig6 , the light rays are now better deflected to the sensitive area 108 . this reduces the probability that “ photo - charges ” are directly generated in the storage sites 114 , before passing through the demodulation stage 112 . fig7 illustrates an alternative embodiment wherein the samples of the pixel are post - processed before read out . typically post - processing 124 includes subtracting the charges / voltages from two nodes or amplifying the output to increase the dynamic range , i . e . reduction of noise or increase of saturation level . however , in alternative embodiments other methods of post processing are performed as well . the invention described above shows a demodulation pixel implemented on a back side illumination ( bsi ) technology . the pixel is processed in a bsi technology and includes , a photo - sensitive area , where electron hole pairs are generated , electrical drift fields driving the electrons from the sensitive area to the demodulation region , a demodulation region , where the electrons are sampled and transferred to at least one storage and / or dump node , at least one storage node , which is electrically isolated from the sensitive area and will store the sampled electrons . while this invention has been particularly shown and described with references to preferred embodiments thereof , it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention encompassed by the appended claims . 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