Optical: systems and elements – Single channel simultaneously to or from plural channels – By surface composed of lenticular elements
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-15
2003-10-28
Mack, Ricky (Department: 2873)
Optical: systems and elements
Single channel simultaneously to or from plural channels
By surface composed of lenticular elements
C382S317000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06639726
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
Image sensors often suffer a trade-off between the size of the image sensor and the number of items that can be placed on the image sensor. For example, larger sensor parts may be used to acquire more light, or to allow more control structure to be placed on the sensor substrate. It is often desirable to maximize the amount of circuitry that can be placed on a sensor.
Microlenses may often be placed on image sensor pixels. A conventional sensor may have the structure shown in
FIG. 1. A
planarization layer
100
covers the pixels
105
, which may be image sensor pixels. Each microlens
110
is separated from an adjacent microlens
120
by a gap
112
. The gap needs to have a specified size, e.g. one “design rule” wide. The presence of the gap may reduce the effective fill factor of the image sensor. These gaps between the lenses may be necessary to shape the lenses into their lens-like shape during the lens fabrication process. However, these gaps may lose certain real estate on the image sensor, and hence may affect the “fill factor”.
SUMMARY
The present application teaches a way of forming spacing elements between gaps between lenses in an image sensor device. By doing this, the spacing between elements may be reduced.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4708436 (1987-11-01), Kleinknecht
patent: 5956163 (1999-09-01), Clarke et al.
Dickstein , Shapiro, Morin & Oshinsky, LLP
Micro)n Technology, Inc.
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