Photogeneration channel in front illuminated solid state silicon imaging devices

摘要

A silicon photoelement imager which includes a photogeneration channel consisting of a layer of doped semiconductor material, located on a support substrate having a layer of oppositely doped semiconductor material. The photogeneration channel, in which carriers are photogenerated, has an optimum effective thickness of d/ pi , where d is the center to center spacing of the photoelements; while the support substrate is sufficiently thick to provide strength and rigidity to the device. The support substrate layer is further biased with respect to the photogeneration channel so as to drain and prevent any carriers produced in the support substrate from entering the photogeneration channel. This photogeneration channel substrate structure can be used to improve the spatial resolution of CCD and MOSFET imagers.