Sony patents camera sensor design to improve light transfer
Sony describes a camera sensor design where the area that collects light has a small bump extending toward the dividing wall between pixels. A control switch, or gate, is placed over both the main light-collecting area and this bump. This layout is intended to make the switch more effective at moving the electrical charge created by light to the next stage of processing.
In the filing’s own words
Transconductance (gm) of a transfer transistor is increased. A photodetection device includes a semiconductor layer having a first surface and a second surface located opposite to each other in a thickness direction, a photoelectric conversion region provided in the semiconductor layer, the photoelectric conversion region being partitioned by an isolation region extending in the thickness direction of the semiconductor layer, and a transfer transistor including a gate electrode provided on a first surface side of the semiconductor layer in the photoelectric conversion region, the transfer transistor transferring signal charge obtained as a result of photoelectric conversion in the photoelectric conversion unit to a charge holding unit. The photoelectric conversion region includes a main body provided with the photoelectric conversion unit and the charge holding unit, and a protrusion protruding from the main body toward the isolation region in plan view, and the gate electrode of the transfer transistor is provided over the main body and the protrusion of the photoelectric conversion region.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A photodetection device comprising: a semiconductor layer having a first surface and a second surface located opposite to each other in a thickness direction; a photoelectric conversion region provided in the semiconductor layer, the photoelectric conversion region being partitioned by an isolation region extending in the thickness direction of the semiconductor layer; and a transfer transistor that transfers signal charge obtained as a result of photoelectric conversion in a photoelectric conversion unit to a charge holding unit, wherein the photoelectric conversion region includes a main body provided with the photoelectric conversion unit and the charge holding unit, and a protrusion protruding from the main body toward the isolation region in plan view, and the transfer transistor includes a gate electrode provided over the main body and the protrusion of the photoelectric conversion region on a first surface side of the semiconductor layer.
Facts
- Company
- Sony (SONY SEMICONDUCTOR SOLUTIONS CORPORATION)
- Official title
- PHOTODETECTION DEVICE AND ELECTRONIC APPARATUS
- Publication number
- US20260314090A1
- Application number
- 19480330
- Filed
- Mar 29, 2024
- Published
- Oct 8, 2026
- Inventors
- 1
- Claims
- 10
Classified under
H10F 39/80373 Electricity & electronicsH10F 30/221 Electricity & electronicsH10F 39/182 Electricity & electronicsH10F 39/8027 Electricity & electronicsH10F 39/8033 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.