An image sensor including: a substrate which has a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface and pixels arranged in a two-dimensional array, wherein each of the pixels includes a photodiode; a multi-wiring layer arranged on the first surface of the substrate; a color filter layer arranged on the second surface of the substrate and including color filters that respectively correspond to the pixels; and a lens layer arranged on the color filter layer and including a double-sided spherical lens, wherein the double-sided spherical lens includes at least two material layers having different refractive indexes.

A semiconductor image sensor includes a plurality of pixels. Each pixel of the sensor includes a semiconductor substrate having opposite front and back sides and laterally delimited by a first insulating wall including a first conductive core insulated from the substrate, electron-hole pairs being capable of forming in the substrate due to a back-side illumination. A circuit is configured to maintain, during a first phase in a first operating mode, the first conductive core at a first potential and to maintain, during at least a portion of the first phase in a second operating mode, the first conductive core at a second potential different from the first potential.

Various embodiments of the present disclosure are directed towards a method for forming a semiconductor structure. The method includes forming a first isolation structure on a first surface of a substrate. A second isolation structure is formed into the first surface of the substrate. Sidewalls of the first isolation structure are disposed laterally between inner sidewalls of the second isolation structure. A bond pad is formed in the substrate such that the second isolation structure continuously laterally wraps around the bond pad.

A method for forming a pixel includes forming, in a semiconductor substrate, a wide trench having an upper depth with respect to a planar top surface of the semiconductor substrate. The method also includes ion-implanting a floating-diffusion region between the planar top surface and a junction depth in the semiconductor substrate. In a cross-sectional plane perpendicular to the planar top surface, the floating-diffusion region has (i) an upper width between the planar top surface and the upper depth, and (ii) between the upper depth and the junction depth, a lower width that exceeds the upper width. Part of the floating-diffusion region is beneath the wide trench and between the upper depth and the junction depth.

An apparatus includes a plurality of pixels and a plurality of microlenses. Each of the pixels has a first conversion unit and a second conversion unit surrounding the first conversion unit. The first conversion unit and the second conversion unit each have a light portion to receive light from a corresponding microlens. The first conversion unit and the second conversion unit are under the corresponding microlens. The pixels includes two or more pixels varying in an area ratio between an area of the light *portion of the first conversion unit and an area of the light portion of the second conversion unit.

A backside illuminated image sensor includes a substrate having a frontside surface and a backside surface, a pixel region disposed in the substrate, a reinforcing pattern disposed on the frontside surface of the substrate, an insulating layer disposed on the frontside surface of the substrate and the reinforcing pattern, a bonding pad disposed on the insulating layer, and a second bonding pad electrically connected to the bonding pad through the substrate, the reinforcing pattern, and the insulating layer.

A member for a solid-state image pickup device having a bonding plane with no gaps and a method for manufacturing the same are provided. The manufacturing method includes the steps of providing a first substrate provided with a photoelectric converter on its primary face and a first wiring structure, providing a second substrate provided with a part of a peripheral circuit on its primary face and a second wiring structure, and performing bonding so that the first substrate, the first wiring structure, the second wiring structure, and the second substrate are disposed in this order. In addition, at least one of an upper face of the first wiring structure and an upper face of the second wiring structure has a concave portion, and a conductive material forms a bottom face of the concave portion.

The present technique aims to provide a solid-state imaging device that reduces shading and color mixing between pixels. The present invention also provides a method of manufacturing the solid-state imaging device. The present technique further relates to a solid-state imaging device that enables provision of an electronic apparatus that uses the solid-state imaging device, a method of manufacturing the solid-state imaging device, and an electronic apparatus. The solid-state imaging device includes a substrate, pixels each including a photoelectric conversion unit formed in the substrate, and a color filter layer formed on the light incidence surface side of the substrate. The solid-state imaging device also includes a device isolating portion that is formed to divide the color filter layer and the substrate for the respective pixels, and has a lower refractive index than the refractive indexes of the color filter layer and the substrate.

In some embodiments, a method is provided. The method includes forming a plurality of trenches in a semiconductor substrate, where the trenches extend into the semiconductor substrate from a back-side of the semiconductor substrate. An epitaxial layer comprising a dopant is formed on lower surfaces of the trenches, sidewalls of the trenches, and the back-side of the semiconductor substrate, where the dopant has a first doping type. The dopant is driven into the semiconductor substrate to form a first doped region having the first doping type along the epitaxial layer, where the first doped region separates a second doped region having a second doping type opposite the first doping type from the sidewalls of the trenches and from the back-side of the semiconductor substrate. A dielectric layer is formed over the back-side of the semiconductor substrate, where the dielectric layer fill the trenches to form back-side deep trench isolation structures.

To provide a solid-state image sensor in which two or more semiconductor chips are bonded together without voids occurring in their bonding surfaces despite the conductive films bonded together at a high areal ratio. The solid-state image sensor includes at least a first semiconductor chip carrying thereon one or more than one of a first conductor and a pixel array, and a second semiconductor chip which bonds to the first semiconductor chip and carries thereon one or more than one of a second conductor and a logic circuit, with the first semiconductor chip and the second semiconductor chip bonding together in such a way that the first conductor and the second conductor overlap with each other and are electrically connected to each other, and the bonding occurring such that the first conductor and the second conductor differ from each other in the area of their bonding surfaces.