A 2.8 µm Pixel-Pitch 55 ke- Full-Well Capacity Global-Shutter Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor Image Sensor Using Lateral Overflow Integration Capacitor

In this paper, a global-shutter complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor using lateral overflow integration capacitor (LOFIC) in each pixel without trade-offs between full-well capacity (FWC) and dark current and between FWC and pixel size has been demonstrated. Because the FWC is determined only by LOFIC, a photodiode (PD) and storage diffusion capacitor (SD) are designed focusing on achieving low dark current performance especially. A 2.8 mu m pixel pitch Bayer-RGB color CMOS image sensor with the pinned diffusion capacitor for the storage node was fabricated and achieved both 83.3 e(-)/s at the PD and 58.3 e(-)/s at the SD dark current at 60 degrees C and about 55 ke(-) full well capacity. A high resolution performance, a high FWC performance and a low dark current performance were simultaneously achieved in this image sensor. (C) 2013 The Japan Society of Applied Physics