Image sensor, spectrum splitting and filtering device, and image sensor preparation method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022336509-A1
Application number	US-202217854962-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 30, 2022
Priority date	Dec 31, 2019
Publication date	Oct 20, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

One example image sensor includes a metasurface, a substrate, and an optical-to-electrical converter. Arrays in the metasurface are arranged on the top of the substrate. The metasurface includes multiple subunits. Each subunit includes an array including multiple columnar structures. The bottom of the substrate is disposed on a surface of the optical-to-electrical converter in the image sensor. The metasurface includes at least two media with different refractive indexes. The optical-to-electrical converter includes an array for optical-to-electrical conversion. The array of the optical-to-electrical converter is divided into multiple color regions. The metasurface is configured to refract incident light and transmit, through the substrate, refracted light to a corresponding color region in the array of the optical-to-electrical converter. In addition, each subunit refracts incident light and then transmits refracted light to a color region in a corresponding color unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An image sensor, comprising a metasurface, a substrate, and an optical-to-electrical converter, wherein:
the metasurface comprises a plurality of subunits, each subunit of the plurality of subunits comprises an array of a plurality of columnar structures, arrays in the metasurface are arranged on top of the substrate, the substrate is disposed on a surface of the optical-to-electrical converter, the metasurface comprises at least two media with different refractive indexes, the optical-to-electrical converter comprises an array for optical-to-electrical conversion, the array of the optical-to-electrical converter is divided into a plurality of color units, each color unit of the plurality of color units comprises at least four color regions, each color unit of the plurality of color units corresponds to one of the plurality of subunits, the metasurface is configured to refract incident light and transmit, through the substrate, refracted light to a corresponding color region in the array of the optical-to-electrical converter, and each subunit of the plurality of subunits refracts incident light and transmits, through the substrate, refracted light to a color region in a corresponding color unit.

2 . The image sensor according to claim 1 , wherein a color filtering structure is disposed between the optical-to-electrical converter and the substrate, the color filtering structure is divided into a plurality of color filtering regions, each color filtering region of the plurality of color filtering regions covers one corresponding color region, and a color corresponding to the color region is same as a color that passes through a color filtering region covering the color region.

3 . The image sensor according to claim 2 , wherein a lens is disposed between each color filtering region of the plurality of color filtering regions and the substrate.

4 . The image sensor according to claim 1 , wherein light of a plurality of spectrum bands corresponding to the plurality of color regions comprises one or more of green, red, blue, or infrared light.

5 . The image sensor according to claim 1 , wherein a material of the metasurface comprises one or more of titanium dioxide, gallium nitride, or silicon carbide.

6 . The image sensor according to claim 1 , wherein colors corresponding to each color unit of the plurality of color units comprise at least two same colors, and the plurality of columnar structures comprised in the subunit corresponding to each color unit of the plurality of color units form an angularly symmetric shape.

7 . An image sensor preparation method, comprising:
preparing an optical-to-electrical converter, wherein the optical-to-electrical converter is configured to convert an optical signal into an electrical signal, the optical-to-electrical converter comprises an array for optical-to-electrical conversion, and the array of the optical-to-electrical converter is divided into a plurality of color regions; and preparing a spectrum splitting and filtering device on a surface of the optical-to-electrical converter, wherein the spectrum splitting and filtering device comprises a metasurface and a substrate, the metasurface comprises a plurality of subunits, each subunit of the plurality of subunits comprises an array of a plurality of columnar structures, arrays in the metasurface are arranged on top of the substrate, the substrate is disposed on the surface of the optical-to-electrical converter, the metasurface comprises at least two media with different refractive indexes, the surface of the optical-to-electrical converter is a face for receiving an optical signal, the array of the optical-to-electrical converter is divided into a plurality of color units, each color unit of the plurality of color units comprises at least four color regions, each color unit of the plurality of color units corresponds to one of the plurality of subunits, the metasurface is configured to refract incident light to a corresponding color region in the array of the optical-to-electrical converter, and each subunit of the plurality of subunits refracts incident light and transmits, through the substrate, refracted light to a color region in a corresponding color unit.

8 . The method according to claim 7 , wherein the method further comprises:
before preparing the spectrum splitting and filtering device on the surface of the optical-to-electrical converter, determining a plurality of arrays, and using the plurality of arrays as a structure of the metasurface of the spectrum splitting and filtering device to obtain a plurality of spectrum splitting structures; obtaining a plurality of evaluation values in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of spectrum splitting structures by using a preset evaluation function, wherein the evaluation function is a function for calculating light utilization of the spectrum splitting structures; and if the plurality of evaluation values comprise at least one evaluation value greater than a preset value, selecting a first spectrum splitting structure as a structure of the spectrum splitting and filtering device from the plurality of spectrum splitting structures, wherein an evaluation value of the first spectrum splitting structure is greater than the preset value.

9 . The method according to claim 8 , wherein the method further comprises:
if the plurality of evaluation values do not comprise at least one evaluation value greater than the preset value, determining a second plurality of arrays, and determining a second spectrum splitting structure as the structure of the spectrum splitting and filtering device based on the second plurality of arrays.

10 . The method according to claim 9 , wherein determining the second plurality of arrays comprises:
determining, based on the plurality of evaluation values, a mutation rate corresponding to each array of the plurality of arrays; and mutating, based on the mutation rate corresponding to each array of the plurality of arrays, the plurality of arrays to obtain the second plurality of arrays.

11 . The method according to claim 10 , wherein the mutation rate corresponding to each array of the plurality of arrays comprises at least one of a shape mutation rate or a height mutation rate, the shape mutation rate comprises a probability or proportion of shape mutation of each array of the plurality of arrays, and the height mutation rate comprises a probability or proportion of height mutation of each array of the plurality of arrays.

12 . The method according to claim 9 , wherein determining the second plurality of arrays comprises:
determining, based on the plurality of evaluation values, a probability value corresponding to each array of the plurality of arrays; performing, based on the probability value corresponding to each array of the plurality of arrays, a plurality of times of sampling on the plurality of arrays to obtain a plurality of intermediate structures; determining mutation rates of the plurality of intermediate structures based on evaluation values of the plurality of intermediate structures; and mutating the plurality of intermediate structures based on the mutation rates of the plurality of intermediate structures to obtain the second plurality of arrays.

13 . The method according to claim 7 , wherein the method further comprises:
preparing a color filtering structure between the optical-to-electrical converter and the substrate, wherein the color filtering structure is divided into a plurality of color filtering regions, each color filtering region of the plurality of color filtering regions covers one corresponding color regio

Assignees

• Huawei Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Zhang Youming
• Sun shang
• Liu Chuangchuang

Classifications

• H01L27/14621 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L27/14645

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L27/14649

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L27/14683

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H10F39/024

  of coatings or optical elements · CPC title