SOI Image Sensor Removed Sources of Dark Current with Pinned Photodiode on Handle Wafer (ICEIC'04)

We fabricated a hybrid bulk/fully depleted silicon on insulator (FDSOI) complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) active pixel image sensor. The active pixel is comprised of reset and source follower transistors on the SOI seed wafer, while the pinned photodiode and readout gate and floating diffusion are fabricated on the SOI handle wafer after the removal of the buried oxide. The source of dark current is eliminated by hybrid bulk/FDSOI pixel structure between localized oxidation of silicon (LOCOS) and photodiode(PD). By using the low noise hybrid pixel structure, dark currents qm be suppressed significantly. The pinned photodiode can also be optimized for quantum efficiency and reduce the noise of dark current. The spectral response of the pinned photodiode on the SOI handle wafer is very flat between 400 nm and 700 nm and the dark current that is higher than desired is about 10 nA/cm2 at a $V_{DD}$ of 2 V.