Spectroscopic sensor and electronic apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9357956-B2
Application number	US-201113038992-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 2, 2011
Priority date	Mar 5, 2010
Publication date	Jun 7, 2016
Grant date	Jun 7, 2016

Abstract

A spectroscopic sensor has plural angle limiting filters that limit incident angles of incident lights, plural light band-pass filters that transmit specific wavelengths, and plural photodiodes to which corresponding transmitted lights are input. The spectroscopic sensor is a semiconductor device in which the angle limiting filters, the light band-pass filters, and the photodiodes are integrated, and, assuming that the surface on which impurity regions for the photodiodes are formed is a front surface of a semiconductor substrate, holes for receiving lights are formed in the impurity regions from the rear surface side.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A spectroscopic sensor comprising:
an impurity region for a photodiode formed in a semiconductor substrate; and
an angle limiting filter for limiting an incident angle of an incident light to a light receiving surface of the photodiode, the angle limiting filter formed directly above the impurity region,
wherein, the angle limiting filter comprises a substantially vertically extended substrate portion of said semiconductor substrate disposed along a circumference of a surface of the impurity region, and a light blocking material is directly provided on side surfaces of the substantially vertically extended substrate portion.

2. The spectroscopic sensor according to claim 1 , further comprising
a light band-pass filter that transmits a specific wavelength of the incident light, the light band-pass filter formed over the angle limiting filter.

3. The spectroscopic sensor according to claim 2 , wherein
the light band-pass filter has a transmission wavelength that varies in response to the incident angle of the incident light to the light receiving surface of the photodiode,
the angle limiting filter limits the incident angle of the incident light and limits a change range of the transmission wavelength, and
for the light band-pass filter, a band of the specific wavelength to be transmitted is set according to the change range of the transmission wavelength limited by the angle limiting filter.

4. The spectroscopic sensor according to claim 1 , wherein
the angle limiting filter is formed along an outer circumference of a light receiving area of the photodiode in a plan view with respect to the semiconductor substrate.

5. The spectroscopic sensor according to claim 1 , wherein
the angle limiting filter has plural openings formed on a rear surface side of the semiconductor substrate, and
the plural openings are formed along an outer circumference of the light receiving area of the photodiode and limits the incident angle of the incident light to the light receiving area of the photodiode.

6. The spectroscopic sensor according to claim 2 , wherein
the light band-pass filter is formed by a multilayer thin film tilted at an angle in response to the transmission wavelength relative to the semiconductor substrate.

7. The spectroscopic sensor according to claim 6 , wherein
the light band-pass filter is formed by plural sets of multilayer thin films having different transmission wavelengths, and
the plural sets of multilayer thin films have different tilt angles relative to the semiconductor substrate in response to the transmission wavelengths and are formed in a simultaneous thin film forming step.

8. The spectroscopic sensor according to claim 6 , wherein
the impurity region for the photodiode is sectioned into plural regions by an insulator having a trench structure,
the light band-pass filter is formed by plural band-pass filters having different transmission wavelengths, and
each band-pass filter of the plural light band-pass filters is provided in response to one or some regions sectioned by the insulator having the trench structure.

9. The spectroscopic sensor according to claim 6 , further comprising
a tilted structure provided on the angle limiting filter,
wherein the tilted structure has a tilted surface tilted at an angle in response to the transmission wavelength of the light band-pass filter relative to the semiconductor substrate, and
the multilayer thin film is formed on the tilted surface.

10. The spectroscopic sensor according to claim 9 , wherein
the tilted structure is formed on the angle limiting filter using a semiconductor process.

11. The spectroscopic sensor according to claim 10 , wherein,
the tilted structure is formed by forming a step or a sparse and dense pattern on a transparent film stacked by the semiconductor process, and performing at least one of grinding and etching on the step or the sparse and dense pattern.

12. The spectroscopic sensor according to claim 1 , wherein
the light blocking material is further provided on the rear surface of the extended substrate portion.

13. The spectroscopic sensor according to claim 12 , wherein
the light blocking material is a light absorbing material or a light reflecting material.

14. An electronic apparatus comprising the spectroscopic sensor according to claim 1 .

15. An electronic apparatus comprising the spectroscopic sensor according to claim 3 .

16. An electronic apparatus comprising the spectroscopic sensor according to claim 4 .

17. An electronic apparatus comprising the spectroscopic sensor according to claim 5 .

18. An electronic apparatus comprising the spectroscopic sensor according to claim 6 .

19. An electronic apparatus comprising the spectroscopic sensor according to claim 9 .

20. An electronic apparatus comprising the spectroscopic sensor according to claim 10 .

21. An electronic apparatus comprising the spectroscopic sensor according to claim 12 .

Assignees

• Uematsu Akira
• Nakamura Noriyuki
• Komatsu Akira
• Yano Kunihiko
• Seiko Epson Corp

Inventors

• Uematsu Akira
• Nakamura Noriyuki
• Komatsu Akira
• Yano Kunihiko

Classifications

• G01J3/51 Primary

  using colour filters · CPC title

• A61B2562/12

  Manufacturing methods specially adapted for producing sensors for in-vivo measurements · CPC title

• A61B5/14532

  for measuring glucose, e.g. by tissue impedance measurement · CPC title

• G01J3/0229

  using masks, aperture plates, spatial light modulators or spatial filters, e.g. reflective filters · CPC title

• A61B5/14552 Primary

  Details of sensors specially adapted therefor · CPC title