A photoelectric conversion apparatus includes a semiconductor substrate that includes at least one pixel having a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements configured to receive light from a common microlens, wherein the semiconductor substrate includes a first surface that is formed of light-receiving surfaces of the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements and a second surface that faces the first surface, and the first surface has a concave shape, and at least a portion of the first surface is inclined with respect to the second surface.

The present disclosure provides an image sensing computing unit and its operating method, an image sensing computer and an electronic device. Among them, the image sensing computing unit includes a first photosensitive unit and a second photosensitive unit. The second photosensitive unit is connected in series with the first photosensitive unit. The changing direction of the first threshold voltage of the first photosensitive unit when receiving light is opposite to the changing direction of the second threshold voltage of the second photosensitive unit when receiving light, so as to implement an in-situ logical operation between light input signals.

Disclosed is an image sensor comprising a semiconductor substrate that includes first through fourth pixel regions, each including first through fourth photoelectric conversion sections, and a pixel separation structure disposed in the semiconductor substrate and separating the first through fourth pixel regions from each other. The second pixel region is spaced apart in a first direction from the first pixel region. The fourth pixel region is spaced apart in a second direction from the first pixel region. The second direction intersects the first direction. The semiconductor substrate includes first impurity sections disposed on corresponding central portions of the first through fourth pixel regions, and a second impurity section disposed between the second and fourth pixel regions. Impurities doped in the first impurity sections have a conductivity type different from that of impurities doped in the second impurity section.

Disclosed are image sensors and methods of fabricating the same. The image sensor includes a semiconductor substrate including a pixel zone and a pad zone and having a first surface and a second surface opposing each other, a first pad separation pattern on the pad zone and extending from the first surface of the semiconductor substrate toward the second surface of the semiconductor substrate, a second pad separation pattern extending from the second surface toward the first surface of the semiconductor substrate on the pad zone the second pad and in contact with the first pad separation pattern, and a pixel separation pattern on the pixel zone and extending from the second surface of the semiconductor substrate toward the first surface of the semiconductor substrate.

An apparatus includes pixels on a substrate. Each pixel includes a first portion, a second, and a microlens. The substrate has a first surface on an incidence side and a second surface opposite to the first surface, and includes an inter-pixel portion isolating adjacent pixels from each other, and an intra-pixel portion isolating the first and second portions from each other. The inter-pixel portion includes a first region located adjacently to the first surface, and a second region located adjacently to the second surface. The intra-pixel portion includes a third region located adjacently to the first surface, and a fourth region located adjacently to the second surface. The first and third regions are shifted with respect to the second and fourth regions, respectively, in an identical direction that is a direction orthogonal to a longitudinal direction of the intra-pixel portion in plan view from the first surface.

A solid-state imaging device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes a stacked photoelectric converter for each of pixels. The stacked photoelectric converter has a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements stacked therein. The plurality of photoelectric conversion elements each has different wavelength selectivity. This solid-state imaging device further includes a plurality of data output lines from which pixel signals based on electric charges outputted from the photoelectric conversion elements are outputted. A plurality of data output lines is provided for each predetermined unit pixel column. The plurality of the data output lines is equal in number to an integer multiple of the photoelectric conversion elements stacked in the stacked photoelectric converter.

Color router based photodiodes and integrated pixel circuit. In one embodiment, a plurality of pixels arranged in rows and columns of a pixel array are disposed in a semiconductor material. In some embodiments, each pixel comprises a plurality of photodiodes and a color router covering the plurality of photodiodes. In some embodiments, the plurality of pixels is configured to receive an incoming light through the color router. In some embodiments, the integrated pixel circuit includes a plurality of pixel circuits, where each pixel circuit is associated with a corresponding pixel of the plurality of pixels. In some embodiments, the pixel circuits are configured on a same horizontal plane as the plurality of photodiodes.

The present disclosure relates to a solid-state image pickup device and an electronic apparatus by which a phase-difference detection pixel that avoids defects such as lowering of sensitivity to incident light and lowering of phase-difference detection accuracy can be realized. A solid-state image pickup device as a first aspect of the present disclosure is a solid-state image pickup device in which a normal pixel that generates a pixel signal of an image and a phase-difference detection pixel that generates a pixel signal used in calculation of a phase-difference signal for controlling an image-surface phase difference AF function are arranged in a mixed manner, in which, in the phase-difference detection pixel, a shared on-chip lens for condensing incident light to a photoelectric converter that generates a pixel signal used in calculation of the phase-difference signal is formed for every plurality of adjacent phase-difference detection pixels. The present disclosure is applicable to a backside illumination CMOS image sensor and an electronic apparatus equipped with the same.

There is provided a structure to improve BSI global shutter efficiency. In a sensor pixel circuit, at least one strong electric field is formed at the position of a floating diffusion region to accordingly have the effect of shielding the floating diffusion region. Or, the semiconductor material from the floating diffusion node toward a light incident direction is removed in the manufacturing process such that a depletion region cannot be formed in this direction. Or, a reflection layer or a photoresist layer is formed in the light incident direction to block the light. In these ways, charges generated by the undesired noises are reduced, and noise charges are difficult to reach the floating diffusion region thereby improving the shutter efficiency.

An image sensing device may include one or more pixel groups arranged in rows and columns in an array, each pixel group being arranged at an intersection between a row and a column of the array, wherein each pixel group comprises one or more floating diffusion regions, and one or more groups of an odd number photoelectric conversion units structured to convert incident light to generate electrical charge, each group of the odd number of photoelectric conversion units electrically connected in common to one of the floating diffusion regions for receiving the generated electrical charge.