Semiconductor Image Sensor Voltage Isolation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Semiconductor devices face challenges in efficiently managing voltage levels for transistors with different driving requirements, leading to increased leakage current and higher driving voltages due to the need for separate voltage applications in regions with low and high driving voltage transistors.
Innovation Solution
A semiconductor device design featuring a substrate with separated regions, where a separation pattern electrically insulates regions with high and low driving voltage transistors, allowing a specific voltage, such as a negative voltage, to be applied only to the region with high voltage transistors through connection wiring structures, reducing the overall driving voltage and leakage current.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If separate voltage applications are used for low and high driving voltage transistor regions, then transistors with different voltage requirements can operate efficiently, but leakage current increases and device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The substrate is divided into a first region for low driving voltage transistors and a second region for high driving voltage transistors, with separate power supply voltage applying structures for each region. This segmentation allows each transistor type to receive its required voltage level independently, enabling efficient operation while preventing leakage current from affecting the entire device.
Solution Approach 2:
A common source line structure serves as an intermediary that connects both low and high driving voltage transistors, allowing them to share a common reference potential while maintaining separate voltage applying structures. This intermediary structure facilitates voltage level isolation and prevents leakage current propagation between regions.
2Adaptability or versatility
If separate voltage applications are used for low and high driving voltage transistor regions, then transistors with different voltage requirements can operate efficiently, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The power supply voltage applying structures are segmented into first and second separate structures, each dedicated to specific transistor regions. This segmentation allows independent voltage control while maintaining a modular architecture that manages complexity through functional separation.
Solution Approach 2:
The common source line structure serves multiple functions: it acts as a reference potential for both low and high driving voltage transistors, provides a shared connection path, and enables voltage isolation between regions. This multi-functionality reduces the need for entirely separate structures, thereby managing device complexity.
3Reliability
If high voltage is applied to all regions, then high voltage transistors can operate properly, but low voltage transistors experience increased leakage current
Solution Approach 1:
Different voltage levels are applied to different spatial regions of the device: low driving voltage to the first region containing low voltage transistors, and high driving voltage to the second region containing high voltage transistors. This local quality approach ensures each transistor operates at its optimal voltage level, preventing leakage current in low voltage regions while enabling proper operation in high voltage regions.
Data Source
AI summary
A semiconductor device including: a substrate having a first surface and a second surface facing the first surface, wherein light is incident on the second surface; a pixel region formed in the substrate; a semiconductor photoelectric converter disposed in the pixel region and the substrate; one or more transistors disposed in the pixel region and at the first surface of the substrate, wherein the one or more transistors do not overlap the semiconductor photoelectric converter; and a separation pattern disposed in the pixel region and surrounding the one or more transistors.