Image sensor and electronic device including the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9455302-B2
Application number	US-201414584290-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 29, 2014
Priority date	Aug 12, 2014
Publication date	Sep 27, 2016
Grant date	Sep 27, 2016

Abstract

Example embodiments relate to an image sensor that includes a semiconductor substrate integrated with at least one photo-sensing device, an impurity-doped first light-transmitting electrode present in the semiconductor substrate, an organic photoelectric conversion layer positioned on one side of the semiconductor substrate and absorbing light in a different wavelength from the wavelength sensed by the photo-sensing device, and a second light-transmitting electrode positioned on one side of the organic photoelectric conversion layer, and an electronic device including the same.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An image sensor comprising:
a semiconductor substrate including at least one photo-sensing device configured to sense a wavelength;
an impurity-doped first light-transmitting electrode in the semiconductor substrate;
an organic photoelectric conversion layer on the semiconductor substrate and configured to absorb light in a different wavelength from the wavelength sensed by the photo-sensing device; and
a second light-transmitting electrode on the organic photoelectric conversion layer;
wherein the impurity-doped first light-transmitting electrode, the organic photoelectric conversion layer, and the second light-transmitting electrode form an organic photoelectric device, and
one of the impurity-doped first light-transmitting electrode and the second light-transmitting electrode is an anode of the organic photoelectric device, and the other of the impurity-doped first light-transmitting electrode and the second light-transmitting electrode is a cathode of the organic photoelectric device.

2. The image sensor of claim 1 , wherein the impurity-doped first light-transmitting electrode comprises n-type or p-type impurity-doped amorphous silicon.

3. The image sensor of claim 2 , wherein the impurity-doped first light-transmitting electrode has a thickness of about 2 nm to about 50 nm.

4. The image sensor of claim 1 , wherein the photo-sensing device integrated in the semiconductor substrate comprises a first photo-sensing device configured to sense light in a first wavelength region, and a second photo-sensing device configured to sense light in a second wavelength region that is different from the first wavelength region,
wherein the organic photoelectric conversion layer is configured to absorb light in a third wavelength region that is different from the first wavelength region and the second wavelength region.

5. The image sensor of claim 4 , wherein the first photo-sensing device and the second photo-sensing device are at different depths from the surface of the semiconductor substrate.

6. The image sensor of claim 5 , wherein the first photo-sensing device is configured to sense light in a longer wavelength region than the second photo-sensing device, and
the first photo-sensing device is deeper from the surface of the semiconductor substrate than the second photo-sensing device.

7. The image sensor of claim 4 , further comprising a selectively transmitting region between the first photo-sensing device and the impurity-doped first light-transmitting electrode.

8. The image sensor of claim 7 , wherein the selectively transmitting region is configured to selectively transmit light in the first wavelength region and is configured to selectively reflect or absorb light in the second wavelength region.

9. The image sensor of claim 7 , wherein the selectively transmitting region comprises crystalline silicon.

10. The image sensor of claim 7 , wherein the impurity-doped first light-transmitting electrode comprises amorphous silicon, and
the selectively transmitting region includes crystalline silicon.

11. The image sensor of claim 4 , further comprising a color filter layer on one side of the second light-transmitting electrode.

12. The image sensor of claim 11 , wherein the color filter layer comprises:
a first color filter in correspondence with the first photo-sensing device and configured to selectively transmit light in the first wavelength region and the third wavelength region, and
a second color filter in correspondence with the second photo-sensing device and configured to selectively transmit light in the second wavelength region and the third wavelength region.

13. The image sensor of claim 11 , wherein the first photo-sensing device and the second photo-sensing device are spaced apart in a horizontal direction.

14. The image sensor of claim 1 , wherein no insulation layer is between the semiconductor substrate and the organic photoelectric conversion layer.

15. The image sensor of claim 1 , wherein no organic color filter is between the semiconductor substrate and the organic photoelectric conversion layer.

16. The image sensor of claim 4 , wherein the first wavelength region, the second wavelength region, and the third wavelength region are one of three primary colors in a visible wavelength region.

17. The image sensor of claim 16 , wherein the first wavelength region is a red wavelength region,
the second wavelength region is a blue wavelength region, and
the third wavelength region is a green wavelength region.

18. The image sensor of claim 17 , wherein the red wavelength region has a maximum absorption wavelength (λ max ) that is greater than about 580 nm and less than or equal to about 700 nm,
the blue wavelength region has a maximum absorption wavelength (λ max ) that is greater than or equal to about 400 nm and less than about 500 nm, and
the green wavelength region has a maximum absorption wavelength (λ max ) that is about 500 nm to about 580 nm.

19. An electronic device including the image sensor of claim 1 .

20. The image sensor of claim 1 , wherein the impurity-doped first light-transmitting electrode is in electrical contact with the organic photoelectric conversion layer.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Lee Kwang-Hee
• Park Kyung Bae
• Lee Gae Hwang
• Leem Dong-Seok
• Jin Yong Wan

Classifications

• H10K39/32

  Organic image sensors · CPC title

• H10K30/20 Primary

  comprising organic-organic junctions, e.g. donor-acceptor junctions · CPC title

• H01L51/442

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L2251/301

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L27/307 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic