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Sony patents camera sensor design with angled metal layers to block stray light

Sony describes a camera sensor design where the metal barriers between pixels are shaped like inverted pyramids, being narrower at the bottom and wider at the top. This structure sits between the light-sensitive chips and the color filters to help guide light correctly. The goal is to reduce unwanted light leakage in back-illuminated image sensors.

Why it mattersThis could lead to sharper photos in phones and cameras by preventing light from one pixel from bleeding into its neighbors.

In the filing’s own words

A solid-state imaging element as disclosed includes a color filter, for each of a plurality of pixels on a back surface side of a semiconductor substrate with an insulating layer interposed between the color filters and the semiconductor substrate, a waveguide between adjacent ones of the color filters formed of a low-refractive-index material having a refractive index lower than a refractive index of the color filters, and a metal layer on a semiconductor substrate side of the waveguide and in the insulating layer on the semiconductor substrate side of a semiconductor-substrate-side surface of the color filters, the metal layer being configured in a shape in which a width of a lower portion closer to the semiconductor substrate is narrower than a width of an upper portion closer to the waveguide. The present technology can be applied to, for example, a back-illuminated CMOS image sensor.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A solid-state imaging element, comprising: a color filter provided, for each of a plurality of pixels, on a back surface side of a semiconductor substrate with an insulating layer interposed between the color filter and the semiconductor substrate, the back surface side of the semiconductor substrate being illuminated with light; a waveguide disposed between adjacent ones of the color filters, the waveguide being formed of a low-refractive-index material having a refractive index lower than a refractive index of the color filters; and a metal layer disposed on a semiconductor substrate side of the waveguide and in the insulating layer on the semiconductor substrate side of a semiconductor-substrate-side surface of the color filters, the metal layer being configured in a shape in which a width of a lower portion closer to the semiconductor substrate is narrower than a width of an upper portion closer to the waveguide.

Facts

Company
Sony (SONY SEMICONDUCTOR SOLUTIONS CORPORATION)
Official title
SOLID-STATE IMAGING ELEMENT, MANUFACTURING METHOD, AND ELECTRONIC APPARATUS
Publication number
US20260293350A1
Application number
19471564
Filed
Mar 26, 2024
Published
Sep 24, 2026
Inventors
1
Claims
15

Classified under

H10F 39/807 Electricity & electronicsH10F 39/014 Electricity & electronicsH10F 39/024 Electricity & electronicsH10F 39/182 Electricity & electronicsH10F 39/199 Electricity & electronicsH10F 39/8053 Electricity & electronics
Read the full filing (official PDF) ↗ Open in the Patent Tracker

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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.