A depth sensor includes a first pixel including a plurality of first photo transistors each receiving a first photo gate signal, a second pixel including a plurality of second photo transistors each receiving a second photo gate signal, a third pixel including a plurality of third photo transistors each receiving a third photo gate signal, a fourth pixel including a plurality of fourth photo transistors each receiving a fourth photo gate signal, and a photoelectric conversion element shared by first to fourth photo transistors of the plurality of first to fourth photo transistors.

Photosensors may be formed on a front side of a semiconductor substrate. An optical refraction layer having a first refractive index may be formed on a backside of the semiconductor substrate. A grid structure including openings is formed over the optical refraction layer. A masking material layer is formed over the grid structure and the optical refraction layer. The masking material layer may be anisotropically etched using an anisotropic etch process that collaterally etches a material of the optical refraction layer and forms non-planar distal surface portions including random protrusions on physically exposed portions of the optical refraction layer. An optically transparent layer having a second refractive index that is different from the first refractive index may be formed on the non-planar distal surface portions of the optical refraction layer. A refractive interface refracts incident light in random directions, and improves quantum efficiency of the photosensors.

Provided is a solid-state imaging device capable of suppressing color mixing between different colors while reducing the sensitivity difference between same colors. The solid-state imaging device includes: a plurality of photoelectric conversion units formed on a substrate to generate signal charges according to an amount of incident light; a microlens array including a microlens formed for a photoelectric conversion unit group including at least two or more adjacent photoelectric conversion units 21 to guide incident light to the photoelectric conversion unit group; a scatterer disposed on an optical path of the incident light collected by the microlens; and an inter-pixel light shielding portion including a groove formed between the photoelectric conversion unit of the photoelectric conversion unit group and the photoelectric conversion unit adjacent to the photoelectric conversion unit group and an insulating material filled in the groove. An opening side of an inner side surface of the groove on the scatterer side is a flat surface inclined so that a groove width becomes narrower toward a bottom of the groove.

A solid-state imaging device including a photoelectric conversion film provided over a plurality of pixels, a first electrode electrically coupled to the photoelectric conversion film and provided to each pixel, a second electrode opposed to the first electrode, the photoelectric conversion film being interposed between the second electrode and the first electrode, a first electric charge accumulation section, a reset transistor that is provided to each pixel, and an electric potential generator that applies, during a period in which the signal electric charges are accumulated in the first electric charge accumulation section, an electric potential VPD to the first electrode of each of at least one or more pixels, an electric potential difference between the first electrode and the second electrode when the electric potential VPD is applied to the first electrode being smaller than an electric potential difference when a reset electric potential is applied to the first electrode.

Detectors and detection systems are disclosed. According to certain embodiments, a detector comprises a substrate comprising a plurality of sensing elements including a first sensing element and a second sensing element, wherein at least the first sensing element is formed in a triangular shape. The detector may include a switching region configured to connect the first sensing 5 element and the second sensing element. There may also be provided a plurality of sections including a first section connecting a first plurality of sensing elements to a first output and a second section connecting a second plurality of sensing elements to a second output. The section may be provided in a hexagonal shape.

The invention relates to colour-image sensors. To benefit both from a good luminance resolution and a colour accuracy that is not excessively degraded by the sensitivity of silicon to near-infrared radiation, the invention proposes to produce a mosaic of pixels comprising coloured pixels (R), (G), (B), coated with colour filters, which are distributed in the matrix, with white pixels (T) not coated with colour filters and which are distributed in the matrix. The coloured pixels include photodiodes constructed differently from the photodiodes of the white pixels, the different construction being such that the photodiodes of the coloured pixels have a lower sensitivity to infrared radiation than the photodiodes of the white pixels.

The present disclosure relates to an image sensor, a method of manufacturing the image sensor, and an electronic apparatus where reliability of the image sensor can be further improved. The image sensor includes: a sensor substrate provided with a sensor surface on which a photodiode is arranged in a planar manner; a sealing resin applied to a side of the sensor surface of the sensor substrate; sealing glass bonded to the sensor substrate via the sealing resin; and a reinforcing resin made of a resin material having higher rigidity than the sealing resin and formed on an outer periphery of the sealing resin to bond the sensor substrate and the sealing glass. The sealing resin is formed to have a smaller area than each of the sensor substrate and the sealing glass, so that the reinforcing resin is formed to fill a gap provided on the outer periphery of the sealing resin, the sensor substrate and the sealing glass facing each other through the gap. The present technology can be applied to a CMOS image sensor, for example.

An optical sensor including a first material layer comprising at least a first material; a second material layer comprising at least a second material that is different from the first material, where a material bandgap of the first material is larger than a material bandgap of the second material; and a graded material layer arranged between the first material layer and the second material layer, the graded material layer comprising an alloy of at least the first material and the second material having compositions of the second material that vary along a direction that is from the first material to the second material.

A photoelectric conversion apparatus includes pixels having adjacent first and second pixels. The pixels each include, in a semiconductor layer of a substrate, a photoelectric conversion portion that generates charges, a charge holding portion that holds the charges, and a floating diffusion layer that converts the charges into a voltage. At least parts of the charge holding portion in the first pixel and the floating diffusion layer in the second pixel, parts of the charge holding portion in the first pixel and the charge holding portion in the second pixel, and/or parts of the floating diffusion layer in the first pixel and the floating diffusion layer in the second pixel overlap each other without physically touching each other in a depth direction of the substrate in a state where a region for separating the at least parts of the charge holding portions and the floating diffusion layers is provided therebetween.

A semiconductor device includes element regions which each include a first region of a first conductivity type, a second region of the first conductivity type on the first region and having a higher impurity concentration than that of the first region, a third region of a second conductivity type on the second region. The second region is between the first and third regions in a first direction. A first insulating portion surrounds each element region in a first plane. A fourth region of the first conductivity type surrounds each element region and the first insulating portion in the first plane. The fourth region has a higher impurity concentration than that of the first region. A quenching structure is above a part of the fourth region in the first direction and electrically connected to the third region.