Sony patents camera sensor design that reduces color mixing
Sony has been granted a patent for a camera sensor design that uses a single lens shared by multiple light sensors. The design includes a specific shape that reflects stray light away to keep colors distinct.
In the filing’s own words
Color mixing between pixels of different colors is suppressed. A solid-state imaging device includes: a semiconductor layer including a plurality of photoelectric conversion sections partitioned by an isolation region; a shared on-chip lens arranged on a light incident surface side of the semiconductor layer, the shared on-chip lens being shared by the photoelectric conversion sections adjacent to each other with the isolation region interposed between the photoelectric conversion sections, and having a condensing point positioned in the isolation region; and a concave portion provided in an upper portion of the photoelectric conversion sections that share the shared on-chip lens on the light incident surface of the semiconductor layer.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A solid-state imaging device, comprising: a semiconductor layer including a plurality of photoelectric conversion sections partitioned by an isolation region; a shared on-chip lens arranged above a light incident surface of the semiconductor layer, the shared on-chip lens being shared by the photoelectric conversion sections adjacent to each other with the isolation region interposed between the photoelectric conversion sections, and having a condensing point positioned in the isolation region; and a concave portion provided in an upper portion of the photoelectric conversion sections that share the shared on-chip lens on the light incident surface of the semiconductor layer, wherein the concave portion is a light reflector that causes light obtained by scattering incident light condensed at the condensing point of the shared on-chip lens at the condensing point to be reflected toward a side opposite to the light incident surface of the semiconductor layer, and wherein the light reflector is separated from the condensing point and in contact with the isolation region.
Facts
- Company
- Sony (SONY SEMICONDUCTOR SOLUTIONS CORPORATION)
- Official title
- Solid-state imaging device and electronic device
- Patent number
- US12740172B2
- Application number
- 18000650
- Filed
- Apr 23, 2021
- Granted
- Sep 15, 2026
- Inventors
- 1
- Claims
- 8
Classified under
H10F 39/8067 Electricity & electronicsH04N 23/00 Electricity & electronicsH10F 39/024 Electricity & electronicsH10F 39/182 Electricity & electronicsH10F 39/8053 Electricity & electronicsH10F 39/8063 Electricity & electronicsMore from Sony in Cameras & imaging
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.