Optical and electrical image sensor for biomedical measurements

摘要

The uppermost metallic wiring layer (324) in light-blocking layers constituted by multilevel metallic wiring (32) that prevents light from impinging on areas other than the light-receiving area of a photodiode (11) in each picture cell is used as a measurement electrode (15) to be directly contacted with a specimen to measure electrical signals. Furthermore, in each picture cell including a circuit for reading out electrical signals collected through the measurement electrode (15), another circuit for reading out electrical signals generated by the photodiode (11) is provided in an independent or shared form. This configuration enables the photodiode (11) for optical measurements and the measurement electrode (15) for electrical measurements to be provided in every picture cell. Thus, in a hybrid image sensor having an optical measurement function for obtaining optical information due to the specimen and an electrical measurement functions for obtaining electrical information due to the specimen, the spatial resolution of both types of two-dimensional images can be simultaneously improved.