Multispectral imaging device
10418411 ยท 2019-09-17
Inventors
Cpc classification
A61B2562/0238
HUMAN NECESSITIES
H01L31/103
ELECTRICITY
H01L31/1055
ELECTRICITY
A61B5/0075
HUMAN NECESSITIES
H01L31/022466
ELECTRICITY
H01L27/14652
ELECTRICITY
H01L31/1013
ELECTRICITY
H01L27/14647
ELECTRICITY
International classification
A61B5/00
HUMAN NECESSITIES
H01L31/103
ELECTRICITY
Abstract
A multispectral imaging device comprises a hybrid semiconductor device of stacked type to separate different light wavebands in a three-dimensional space, said hybrid semiconductor device comprises: a first photodiode, to convert NIR light photons to electrons, said first photodiode forming a detecting array of infrared light image, said first photodiodes comprising a substrate and an depletion layer; and a second photodiode, arranged on said first photodiode, to convert visible light photons to electrons, said second photodiode forming a detecting array of visible light image. The multispectral imaging device provided by the present disclosure decreases the cross-talk between different photodiodes and increases the total performance.
Claims
1. A multispectral imaging device, comprising a hybrid semiconductor device of stacked type to separate different wavebands in a three-dimensional space, said hybrid semiconductor device comprising: a first photodiode, configured to convert NIR light photons to electrons, wherein a first plurality of said first photodiode forms a detecting array of infrared light image, said first photodiode comprising a substrate and a depletion layer formed in said substrate, wherein said first photodiode is made of crystal silicon material; and a second photodiode, arranged on said first photodiode, configured to convert visible light photons to electrons, wherein a second plurality of said second photodiode of forms a detecting array of visible light image, said second photodiode is NIP or PIN type, and said second photodiode is made of hydrogenated amorphous silicon material; said multispectral imaging device comprising a plurality of sub-pixels comprising a plurality of first kind of sub-pixels and a plurality of second kind of sub-pixels, wherein each of said sub-pixels comprises at least: a photodiode for converting light to electric signals, an amplifier transistor for amplifying said electric signal, an output transistor for outputting an amplified electric signal, and a reset transistor for resetting a potential of said photodiode; wherein said photodiode is made of said first photodiode in said first kind of sub-pixel or made of said second photodiode in the second kind of sub-pixel.
2. The multispectral imaging device according to claim 1, wherein, said depletion layer is covered completely by a vertical projection of said second photodiode on a plane of said substrate.
3. The multispectral imaging device according to claim 1, wherein, said second photodiode is NIP type, said first photodiode is NP type; or said second photodiode is PIN type, said first photodiode is PN type.
4. The multispectral imaging device according to claim 1, wherein, said second photodiode is PIN type, said first photodiode is NP type; or said second photodiode is NIP type, said first photodiode is PN type.
5. The multispectral imaging device according to claim 1, wherein, said second photodiode comprises a first transparent conductive film, an a-Si doped layer of N+ type, an a-Si un-doped layer, an a-Si doped layer of P+ type and a second transparent conductive film.
6. The multispectral imaging device according to claim 1, further comprising: an isolating component, arranged between a semiconductor layer and said depletion layer on a plane of said substrate.
7. The multispectral imaging device according to claim 1, further comprising: an organic film layer filmed by coating and an insulating layer of field oxide, arranged between said first photodiode and said second photodiode.
8. The multispectral imaging device according to claim 7, wherein a thickness of said organic film layer is in a range of 1 micrometer to 5 micrometers.
9. The multispectral imaging device according to claim 7, wherein a relative dielectric constant of said organic film is in a range of 2.5 to 4.
10. The multispectral imaging device according to claim 7, wherein said depletion layer comprises a N type potential well, and said depletion layer is formed by N doping and activation with a method of ion implantation between the substrate of P type and said insulating layer.
11. The multispectral imaging device according to claim 7, wherein said depletion layer comprises a P type potential well, and said depletion layer is formed by P doping and activation with a manner of ion implantation between a N type substrate and said insulating layer.
12. The multispectral imaging device according to claim 1, wherein said substrate is N type or P type, and correspondingly, said depletion layer is a hole depletion layer or an electron depletion layer.
13. The multispectral imaging device according to claim 1, wherein a thickness of said depletion layer is in a range of 2 micrometers to 100 micrometers.
14. The multispectral imaging device according to claim 1, wherein said detecting array of infrared light image comprises a first photodiode array having depletion layers with at least two kinds of thicknesses.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
(1) By reading the detailed description of nonrestrictive embodiment referring to the figures below, the other features, objects and advantages will be more apparent:
(2)
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION
(9) In the following, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail referring to figures. The concept and its realizations of the present disclosure may be implemented in a plurality of forms, and should not be understood to be limited to the embodiments described hereafter. In contrary, these embodiments are provided to make the present disclosure more comprehensive and understandable, and so the conception of the embodiments may be conveyed to the person skilled in the art fully. Same reference numbers in the figures refer to same or similar structures, so repeated description of them will be omitted.
(10) The features, structures or characteristics described may be combined in any appropriate way in one or more embodiments. In the description below, many specific details are provided to explain the embodiments of the present disclosure fully. However, the person skilled in the art should realize that, without one or more of the specific details, or adopting other methods, components, materials etc., the technical approach of the present disclosure may still be realized. In certain conditions, structures, materials or operations well known are not shown or described in detail so as not to obfuscate the present disclosure.
(11) To overcome the drawbacks of existing technology, the present disclosure provides a multispectral imaging device comprising a hybrid semiconductor device of stacked type to separate light of different wavebands in a three-dimensional space, the hybrid semiconductor device comprises: a first photodiode comprising a substrate and a depletion layer formed in the substrate, to convert NIR light photons to electrons; and a second photodiode, arranged on the first photodiode, to convert visible light photons to electrons visible light. Wherein, the vertical projection on the plane of the substrate of the depletion layer is overlapped with that of the second photodiode. When the second photodiode functions, the depletion layer is depleted.
(12) Below embodiments of the present disclosure are described referring to a plurality of figures.
(13) It should be stated that a plurality of embodiments described below along with their combinations and varieties, beyond doubt are within the scope of present disclosure.
(14)
(15) The multispectral imaging device comprises a first semiconductor layer 140 comprising a first photodiode, a second semiconductor layer comprising second photodiodes and a filtering layer.
(16) The first photodiode is sensitive to NIR light, to convert the NIR light photons to electrons. Alternatively, the NIR light here has a wavelength ranging from 760 nm to 1000 nm.
(17) Three second photodiodes 121, 122 and 123 arranged on the first photodiode are sensitive to visible light to convert visible light photons to electrons, and transparent for NIR light. Alternatively; the visible light here has a wavelength from 400 nm to 760 nm. The second photodiodes can be a-SiH photodiodes, the response curve of an a-SiH photodiode in visible light waveband matches nicely with the response curve of human vision system, so the visible light images acquired by the photodiodes need little color correction. As the hydrogen content, forming process and subsequent process temperature thereof vary, the a-SiH film having an energy band gap approximately from 1.6 eV to 2.0 eV has a large absorption coefficient in visible light and a much lower absorption coefficient in infrared light. As a matter of fact, an a-SiH film in 2 micrometers thick can absorb more than 95% of incident visible light. In other words, a-SiH photodiodes can convert most of visible light to electrons, and allow most NIR light to pass through to irradiate the first semiconductor layer 140.
(18) The filtering layer is arranged on one side of the second semiconductor layer away from the first semiconductor layer 140. The filtering layer comprises a plurality of filters arranged as an array (e.g. a blue filter 111 and a red filter 112). Each filter forms a filtering section transparent for visible light in a specific color band and NIR light. In the embodiment, a plurality of filters comprise band-pass color filters transparent for visible light with shorter wavelength (e.g. a blue filter 111 transparent for light from 400 nm to 460 nm) and band-pass color filters transparent for visible light with longer wavelength (e.g. a red filter 112 transparent for light from 650 nm to 760 nm). The filtering layer can further comprise a transparent film 113 (e.g. a transparent organic film). The transparent film 113 also forms a plurality of filtering sections transparent for visible light and NIR light. The blue filter 111, red filter 112 and transparent film 113 are arranged periodically and repeatedly in two directions (e.g. two orthogonal directions) on the plane of the substrate, and form an array of filtering sections. Each filtering section corresponds to each of the second photodiodes 121, 122 and 123. Hence, when light irradiates the multispectral imaging device, blue light and NIR light pass through the blue filter 111, red light and NIR light pass through the red filter 112, visible light and NIR light pass through the transparent film and irradiate corresponding second photodiodes. Visible light photons are converted to electrons or holes in the corresponding second photodiodes and stored temperately temporarily in corresponding storage capacities till the signal charge of corresponding pixel is read out or a reset of pixel potential occurs. Meanwhile NIR light photons pass through the second semiconductor layer and are converted in the first semiconductor layer 140, and then stored temporarily in corresponding storage capacities until the signal charge of corresponding pixel is read out or a reset of pixel potential occurs.
(19) In the embodiment, the multispectral imaging device further comprises an insulating layer 130 at least transparent for NIR light, arranged between the first semiconductor layer 140 and the second semiconductor layer, to insulate the two layers from each other.
(20) For the sake of simplicity,
(21)
(22) The first photodiode comprises a substrate 341 of N type or P type and a depletion layer 340 formed in the substrate. The depletion layer 340 is correspondingly a hole depletion layer or an electron depletion layer. The equivalent capacitance of the depletion layer 340 can be indicated as C.sub.DEP.
(23) The second photodiode comprises a first transparent conductive film 331, a first doped layer 333, an un-doped layer 334 of amorphous silicon, a second doped layer 335 and a second transparent conductive film 336 formed on the insulating layer 345 in sequence.
(24) The first transparent conductive film 331 is an electrode on the bottom of the second photodiodes, and the material of the electrode can be ITO, SnO.sub.2 etc. The first doped layer 333 and the second doped layer 335 can be two heavy doped layers respectively arranged on the bottom and on the top of the second photodiodes. If the first doped layer 333 presents N+ type conductivity, then the second doped layer 335 should present P+ type conductivity; and vice versa. When the first doped layer 333 or the second doped layer 335 is doped with an N+ type dopant, in certain embodiments, plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition can be adopted by adding a certain percentage of phosphine (PH.sub.3) to filming gas mainly comprising silicone (SiH.sub.4). When the first doped layer 333 or the second doped layer 335 is doped with an P+ type dopant, in certain embodiments, plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition can similarly be adopted and a certain percentage of diborane (B.sub.2H.sub.6) gas is added to the filming gas. Considering the fact that the un-doped film 334 presents weak N type conductivity, it is preferred to add a low percentage of diborane (B.sub.2H.sub.6) gas to the filming gas to have lower dark current of the second photodiode. The second transparent conductive film 336 is an electrode on the top of the second photodiodes, and the material of the electrode can be ITO, or SnO.sub.2, or other conductive material highly transparent for visible light and infrared light. The equivalent capacitance between the first transparent conductive film 331 and the second transparent conductive film 336 can be indicated as C.sub.DP.
(25) In the embodiment shown in
(26) The multispectral imaging device further comprises an isolating component 344, arranged between the semiconductor layer 342 and the depletion layer 340 on the plane of the substrate 341. The isolating component 344 can be a shallow trench isolation (STI) component, to isolate the semiconductor layer 342 from the surrounding thereof. The advantages of the arrangement are low dark current of the substrate 341 and less signal crosstalk.
(27) Shown in
(28) The depletion layer of the first photodiode can be a depletion layer with a single layer or double layers. Related to the depletion layer of a single layer, the reset potential of the conductive film 331 needs to satisfy the condition that the semiconductor below the field oxide layer is always depleted and the thickness of the semiconductor is large enough, e.g., larger than 2 micrometers. One role of the thickness required is to have higher infrared conversion efficiency; another role is to have a less capacitance C.sub.DEP.
(29) Related to the depletion layer of double layers, under the synergetic function of the transistor of the first photodiode and external voltage, all charges in a potential well are extracted, to completely deplete the potential well for storing photo-generated electrons or holes. The depth of the potential well depleted completely is decided by doped concentration and doped thickness. However the potential of the conductive film 331 will decrease or increase the position of the bottom of the potential well through a field oxidized layer, to influence the maximum number of charges stored in the first photodiode. Hence the reset potential of the conductive film 331 should satisfy the condition that two sides of the field oxidized layer have potentials close to each other, to have a lowest cross-talk to the first photodiode. As an example, the potential difference between the reset potential and the surface potential below the field oxidized layer is lower than IV.
(30) Apart from the above conditions, the reset potential of the first transparent conductive film of the second photodiode should further satisfy the following three working conditions:
(31) Firstly, the potential difference between the reset potential and the potential of the second transparent conductive film, i.e. the voltage between two ends of the second photodiode should define a wide enough dynamic range of visible light signal, the voltage according to different requirements ranges from 3V to 10V.
(32) Secondly, the reset potential is also the initial voltage of gate electrode of a transistor with functions of amplification or conversion from charges to voltage, i.e. the bias working voltage of an amplifier transistor, must guarantee that the transistor can stay in a linearity range in the tire dynamic range of signal.
(33) Thirdly, the cooperation of the reset potential with the gate voltage and drain voltage of a reset transistor, should guarantee that only a little leakage of signal charges stored occurs during storage period, and the little leakage can be cleaned up by the reset transistor during reset period.
(34) When infrared light irradiates the depletion layer 340, the signal charges generated are accumulated in the potential well of the depletion layer 340, to partially fill or deplete the potential well. Further, when the potential well is completely filled, the depletion layer will no longer exist. In other words, when the second photodiode is working (during the periods of photoelectric conversion, storage, read out or reset), the electrons or the holes of the depletion layer 340 are completely or partially depleted, and the depletion layer has a thickness larger than 2 micrometers, then the equivalent capacitance C.sub.DEP of the depletion layer 340 is smaller.
(35) Thicker depletion layer 340 can absorb more infrared light, and the infrared light component of longer wavelength absorbed increases. For example, in a detecting array of infrared light image formed by a plurality of first photodiodes two or three kinds of depletion layers are arranged. One role of the arrangement is to acquire infrared light of different wavebands respectively, i.e. to acquire infrared images of different colors. Another role is to increase the dynamic range of detection aiming at stronger infrared light. In other words, when the photodiodes with thicker depletion layers are already saturated, the photodiodes with thinner depletion layers can still work in a linear response region.
(36) Further, the present disclosure has the following advantages by decreasing equivalent capacitance C.sub.DEP to decrease the total capacitance of the first photodiode and the second photodiode:
(37) 1) on one hand, when the electric signal of the second photodiode is read out through the second field effect transistor, the total capacitance C.sub.total of the first photodiode and the second photodiode can be calculated from the following equation:
(38)
(39) The time constant t of reading the signal out is calculated from the equation t=C.sub.total.Math.R.sub.on. Therefore, as much as possible of signal charges (R.sub.on) can be read out within a limited time by decreasing the capacitance C.sub.DEP to decrease the total capacitance C.sub.total;
(40) 2) on the other hand, the Switch Noise read out together with the signal can be calculated from the following equation: (here k refers to boltzmann constant, T refers to absolute temperature):
Switch Noise={square root over (k.Math.T.Math.C.sub.total)}
(41) It can be seen that, the switch noise can also be decreased by decreasing the capacitance C.sub.DEP to decrease the total capacitance C.sub.total.
(42) 3) thirdly, the signal voltage is inversely proportional to the total capacitance of the first photodiode and the second photodiode in a case that: each pixel comprises an active signal amplifying circuit, the photo-generated charges are converted to signal voltage to be applied to the gate electrode of an output transistor and to be output according to a scan sequence, that is, in a case adopting amplified pixel or active pixel sensor. Therefore, a higher signal voltage can be generated by decreasing the capacitance C.sub.DEP.
(43) In addition, influenced by the structure of the depletion layer of a single layer and the principle of MOS devices, under a certain heat balance, the minimum value of C.sub.DEP can be calculated by the following equation (here q refers to quantity of electron charges, .sub.0 and .sub.s refer to vacuum permittivity and relative dielectric constant of silicon semiconductor respectively, N.sub.A refers to doping density of silicon substrate, V.sub.B refers to flat-band voltage):
(44)
(45) It can be seen from the equation that decreasing the doping density of the substrate is the most direct way to decrease the capacitance C.sub.DEP. In a dynamic actuating mode under non-thermal equilibrium, a higher impulse voltage for reset can be applied instantaneously through the second field effect transistor to the first transparent conductive film 331, then the substrate 341 can be depleted deeper to have a lower capacitance C.sub.DEP. However the voltage difference between the potential of the first transparent conductive film 331 and the potential V.sub.PD of the second transparent conductive film 36 should be large enough to satisfy the following two conditions: firstly, the second photodiode is kept always under a reverse bias state; secondly, when the intensity of the incident light gets to the highest set level, at least 0.5V voltage difference should be still left between the two ends of the second photodiode in 2 micrometers thick, to have the photo-generated charges actuated by a high enough electric field and collected on the first transparent conductive film 331 effectively.
(46)
(47)
(48) In the structure in
(49)
(50) Combining
(51) In the case requiring a smaller stray capacitance between the first photodiode 240 and the second photodiode 220 and a larger dynamic range, each of the two following combinations is preferably adopted: a NIP type photodiode of amorphous silicon (second photodiode 220) is stacked on the first photodiode 240 with a N type potential well or a P type substrate of NMOS; or a PIN type photodiode of amorphous silicon (second photodiode 220) is stacked on the first photodiode 240 with a P type potential well or a N type substrate of PMOS.
(52) Preferably, shown in
(53) In other embodiments, shown in
(54) Similarly, in some other cases, the embodiment shown in
(55)
(56) Shown in
(57) The first photodiode (e.g. a crystal silicon photodiode) comprises a. P type substrate 741; a doped layer 740 of N type formed in the substrate 741; a doped layer 742 of N+ type; a doped layer 746 of P+ type; an electrode 764 formed on the substrate and connected to the doped layer 742; and an electrode 761 connected to the doped layer 746. The electrode 761 can also function as a circuit connection component of the silicon substrate and is usually connected to ground. The equivalent capacitance of the doped layer 740 can be indicated as C.sub.DEP. The second photodiode comprises a first transparent conductive film 731, a first doped layer 733, a un-doped a-Si layer 734, a second doped layer 735 and a second transparent conductive film 736 formed on the insulating layer 745 and an organic insulating layer 739 in a sequence. The equivalent capacitance of the second photodiode can be indicated as C.sub.PD.
(58) To reduce the dark charges of the first photodiode coming from the surface defect state of the insulating layer 745, a semiconductor film 746 doped of P+ type is arranged to fill in or pin up the surface defect state in advance. However, a larger stray capacitance exists between the first photodiode and the second photodiode. As the second semiconductor layer 746 is applied with a fixed voltage, C.sub.DEP is equivalent to infinitely large, and C.sub.total=C.sub.PD+C.sub.OX. To relieve the conflict, an organic film 739 with a thickness from 1 micrometer to 5 micrometers is arranged between the insulating layer 745 and the second photodiode in this embodiment. The relative dielectric constant of the organic film 739 can be such as 2.5 to 4. The organic film 739 can be filmed by coating and baking to reduce the stray capacitance between the first photodiode and the second photodiode, and then planarize the concave and convex of the surface of the insulating layer 745.
(59)
(60) The doped structure of the silicon substrates shown in
(61) Shown in
(62)
(63) The left pixel comprising the second photodiode and the right pixel comprising the first photodiode in
(64) It should be stated that, the embodiments described previously combining
(65) On that account, with the multispectral imaging device of the present disclosure, the conversion area of the first photodiode is completely or partially depleted during working period, to have a smaller stray capacitance between the first photodiode and the second photodiode, to decrease cross-talk between different photodiodes, and then increase the efficiency of converting signal charges to signal voltage.
(66) Above all, the second photodiode and the first photodiode are overlapped with each other along the light path, but realize the functions of light absorption and light conversion aiming at different wavebands, respectively. Seen from the channels for storage and transmission of signal charges, with the arrangement of the present disclosure, the influence between the two photodiodes can all be adequately prevented, no matter in a case that each pixel comprising at least one of the two photodiodes simply reads out the photo-generated charges, or in another case that each pixel has a signal amplifying or conversion from charges to voltage function, or in another case that each pixel is APS type. The present disclosure provides a technical approach and a device structure of effectively acquiring a color image of at least one color and a gray (intensity) image of at least one infrared light waveband at the same time. The level of medical imaging diagnosis and treatment can be improved significantly by acquiring multispectral images, especially infrared images information of subcutaneous tissues effectively, portably and accurately.
(67) The basic concept and a plurality of embodiments of the present disclosure are described above. Here a statement need to be made that the present disclosure is not limited by the above specific embodiments, the person skilled in the art may make all kinds of transformations and amendments and combinations within the scope of claims, which will not influence the actual contents of the present disclosure. The present disclosure is also not limited to medical imaging application as described in the present disclosure, it may also be used in other fields such as industrial and agriculture products, environment monitoring and diagnosis, recognition of personal identity, instruments in gaming industry, virtual reality and augmented reality and etc.