A semiconductor device including a substrate, at least one sensor, a dielectric layer, at least one light pipe structure, at least one pad, a shielding layer, and a protection layer is provided. The sensor is located in the substrate of a first region. The dielectric layer is located on the substrate. The light pipe structure is located in the dielectric layer of the first region. The light pipe structure corresponds to the sensor. The pad is located in the dielectric layer of a second region. The shielding layer is located on the dielectric layer, wherein the light pipe structure is surrounded by the shielding layer. The protection layer is located on the shielding layer. At least one pad opening is disposed in the dielectric layer, the shielding layer, and the protection layer above the pad. The pad opening exposes a top surface of the corresponding pad.

Example embodiments disclose an image sensor and a fabricating method thereof. An image sensor may include a semiconductor layer with a light-receiving region and a light-blocking region, the semiconductor layer including photoelectric conversion devices, a light-blocking layer on a surface of the semiconductor layer, color filters on the semiconductor layer and the light-blocking layer, and micro lenses on the color filters. The color filters are absent from an interface region between the light-receiving region and the light-blocking region.

An imaging pixel may be provided with a photodiode and a floating diffusion region. The pixel may include multiple charge storage regions interposed between the photodiode and the floating diffusion region. A first charge storage region may be used to store charge from the photodiode for global shutter functionality. A second charge storage region may not be coupled to the photodiode. The second charge storage region may be used to determine how much charge is generated in the charge storage region from incident light on the charge storage region. The second charge storage region may help account for incident light noise in the first charge storage region. The second charge storage region may be the same size as the first charge storage region, or may be smaller than the first charge storage region.

A solid-state image sensor includes a substrate including a photoelectric conversion portion, an insulating layer having an opening, and a member arranged inside the opening. Letting d be a depth of the opening, the opening has, at an upper end of the opening, a shape having a width in a first direction parallel to the surface of the substrate, and a width in a second direction parallel to the surface of the substrate and orthogonal to the first direction. The widths in the first and second directions are different from each other. The shape is capable of drawing, at each point on a circumference of the opening at the upper end, a circle of 0.6d in diameter which contacts the circumference at the point and does not include a portion outside the opening.

An image sensor pixel for use in a high dynamic range image sensor includes a first photodiode and a second photodiode. The first photodiode include a first doped region, a first lightly doped region, and a first highly doped region disposed between the first doped region and the first lightly doped region. The second photodiode disposed in has a second full well capacity substantially equal to a first full well capacity of the first photodiode. The second photodiode includes a second doped region, a second lightly doped region, and a second highly doped region disposed between the second doped region and the second lightly doped region. A first aperture sizer is disposed above the second photodiode to limit image light received by the second photodiode to a second amount that is less than a first amount of image light received by the first photodiode.

Disclosed is a solid-state imaging device including a plurality of pixels and a plurality of on-chip lenses. The plurality of pixels are arranged in a matrix pattern. Each of the pixels has a photoelectric conversion portion configured to photoelectrically convert light incident from a rear surface side of a semiconductor substrate. The plurality of on-chip lenses are arranged for every other pixel. The on-chip lenses are larger in size than the pixels. Each of color filters at the pixels where the on-chip lenses are present has a cross-sectional shape whose upper side close to the on-chip lens is the same in width as the on-chip lens and whose lower side close to the photoelectric conversion portion is shorter than the upper side.

A solid-state imaging device which includes, a photoelectric conversion film provided on a second surface side which is the opposite side to a first surface on which a wiring layer of a semiconductor substrate is formed, performs photoelectric conversion with respect to light in a predetermined wavelength region, and transmits light in other wavelength regions; and a photoelectric conversion layer which is provided in the semiconductor substrate, and performs the photoelectric conversion with respect to light in other wavelength regions which has transmitted the photoelectric conversion film, in which input light is incident from the second surface side with respect to the photoelectric conversion film and the photoelectric conversion layer.

The present technology relates to an imaging element, an electronic device, and a manufacturing method that make it possible to prevent color mixing in a pixel adjacent to a phase difference detection pixel and to make the light receiving sensitivity high or more. An anti-reflection film is formed only on the side wall of a light blocking unit that blocks part of the incident light on a photo diode of phase difference detection pixels for detecting the phase difference out of a plurality of pixels. Thereby, the light reflected at the side wall of the light blocking unit does not enter a photo diode of an adjacent pixel, and therefore color mixing is prevented. Furthermore, since the anti-reflection film is not formed on an interlayer layer, the light receiving sensitivity of the light that directly enters the photo diode is not reduced. The present technology can be applied to imaging elements.

Provided is a semiconductor device with improved performance. The semiconductor device includes a photodiode having a charge storage layer (n-type semiconductor region) and a surface layer (p-type semiconductor region), and a transfer transistor having a gate electrode and a floating diffusion. The surface layer (p-type semiconductor region) of a second conductive type formed over the charge storage layer (n-type semiconductor region) of a first conductive type includes a first sub-region having a low impurity concentration, and a second sub-region having a high impurity concentration. The first sub-region is arranged closer to the floating diffusion than the second sub-region.

A nanowire array is described herein. The nanowire array comprises a substrate and a plurality of nanowires extending essentially vertically from the substrate; wherein: each of the nanowires has uniform chemical along its entire length; a refractive index of the nanowires is at least two times of a refractive index of a cladding of the nanowires. This nanowire array is useful as a photodetector, a submicron color filter, a static color display or a dynamic color display.