A 45 nm Stacked CMOS Image Sensor Process Technology for Submicron Pixel

Seiji Takahashi; Yi-Min Huang; Jhy-Jyi Sze; Tung-Ting Wu; Fu-Sheng Guo; Wei-Cheng Hsu; Tung-Hsiung Tseng; King Liao; Chin-Chia Kuo; Tzu-Hsiang Chen; Wei-Chieh Chiang; Chun-Hao Chuang; Keng-Yu Chou; Chi-Hsien Chung; Kuo-Yu Chou; Chien-Hsien Tseng; Chuan-Joung Wang; Dun-Nien Yaung

doi:10.3390/s17122816

A 45 nm Stacked CMOS Image Sensor Process Technology for Submicron Pixel

Sensors (Basel). 2017 Dec 5;17(12):2816. doi: 10.3390/s17122816.

Authors

Seiji Takahashi¹, Yi-Min Huang², Jhy-Jyi Sze³, Tung-Ting Wu⁴, Fu-Sheng Guo⁵, Wei-Cheng Hsu⁶, Tung-Hsiung Tseng⁷, King Liao⁸, Chin-Chia Kuo⁹, Tzu-Hsiang Chen¹⁰, Wei-Chieh Chiang¹¹, Chun-Hao Chuang¹², Keng-Yu Chou¹³, Chi-Hsien Chung¹⁴, Kuo-Yu Chou¹⁵, Chien-Hsien Tseng¹⁶, Chuan-Joung Wang¹⁷, Dun-Nien Yaung¹⁸

Affiliations

¹ Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, No. 8, Li-Hsin Rd. 6, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. seijit@tsmc.com.
² Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, No. 8, Li-Hsin Rd. 6, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. ymhuangd@tsmc.com.
³ Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, No. 8, Li-Hsin Rd. 6, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. jjsze@tsmc.com.
⁴ Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, No. 8, Li-Hsin Rd. 6, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. ttwud@tsmc.com.
⁵ Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, No. 8, Li-Hsin Rd. 6, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. fsguo@tsmc.com.
⁶ Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, No. 8, Li-Hsin Rd. 6, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. wchsuo@tsmc.com.
⁷ Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, No. 8, Li-Hsin Rd. 6, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. thtsengc@tsmc.com.
⁸ Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, No. 8, Li-Hsin Rd. 6, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. ccliaot@tsmc.com.
⁹ Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, No. 8, Li-Hsin Rd. 6, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. cckuozf@tsmc.com.
¹⁰ Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, No. 8, Li-Hsin Rd. 6, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. thchenqa@tsmc.com.
¹¹ Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, No. 8, Li-Hsin Rd. 6, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. wchianga@tsmc.com.
¹² Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, No. 8, Li-Hsin Rd. 6, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. chjuang@tsmc.com.
¹³ Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, No. 8, Li-Hsin Rd. 6, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. kychoud@tsmc.com.
¹⁴ Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, No. 8, Li-Hsin Rd. 6, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. chchungu@tsmc.com.
¹⁵ Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, No. 8, Li-Hsin Rd. 6, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. kychouc@tsmc.com.
¹⁶ Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, No. 8, Li-Hsin Rd. 6, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. chtsenga@tsmc.com.
¹⁷ Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, No. 8, Li-Hsin Rd. 6, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. cjwang@tsmc.com.
¹⁸ Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, No. 8, Li-Hsin Rd. 6, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. dnyaung@tsmc.com.

Abstract

A submicron pixel's light and dark performance were studied by experiment and simulation. An advanced node technology incorporated with a stacked CMOS image sensor (CIS) is promising in that it may enhance performance. In this work, we demonstrated a low dark current of 3.2 e^-/s at 60 °C, an ultra-low read noise of 0.90 e^-·rms, a high full well capacity (FWC) of 4100 e^-, and blooming of 0.5% in 0.9 μm pixels with a pixel supply voltage of 2.8 V. In addition, the simulation study result of 0.8 μm pixels is discussed.

Keywords: dark current; full well capacity; image sensor; optical crosstalk; random telegraph noise; read noise; stacked CMOS image sensor; submicron pixel.