Semiconductor device and sensing system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9607971-B2
Application number	US-201313901953-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 24, 2013
Priority date	Jun 4, 2012
Publication date	Mar 28, 2017
Grant date	Mar 28, 2017

Abstract

A semiconductor device includes a first substrate that has a sensing portion that detects predetermined information, a second substrate that has a first processing portion that processes data supplied thereto from the sensing portion, and a third substrate having a second processing portion that processes data supplied thereto either from the first substrate or from the second substrate.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A semiconductor device comprising:
a sensing device configured to convert light into a signal from a first substrate, the first substrate includes the sensing device;
a second substrate configured to output an amount of heat when converting the signal from the first substrate into data, the amount of heat is less than a different amount of heat; and
a third substrate configured to output the different amount of heat when processing either the signal from the first substrate or the data from the second substrate, the second substrate is between the first substrate and the third substrate,
wherein a storage area portion in the third substrate is configured to store the signal from the first substrate or the data from the second substrate, and
wherein the sensing device includes a pixel portion that is configured to convert the light into an output, the second substrate includes an analog to digital converter that is configured to convert the output into the signal from the first substrate.

2. The semiconductor device according to claim 1 , wherein the second substrate includes dynamic random access memory.

3. The semiconductor device according to claim 1 , wherein the third substrate includes static random access memory and dynamic random access memory.

4. The semiconductor device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a different sensing device configured to convert light into another signal, a first substrate includes the different sensing device.

5. The semiconductor device according to claim 1 , wherein the data from the second substrate is a digital signal.

6. The semiconductor device according to claim 5 , wherein the signal from the first substrate is an analog signal.

7. The semiconductor device according to claim 1 , wherein the storage area portion in the third substrate a volatile storage area and a non-volatile storage area.

8. The semiconductor device according to claim 1 , wherein the second substrate includes circuitry from the group consisting of an analog circuit, a circuit block of a driver, a reference voltage generating portion, a digital to analog converter, an analog to digital converter, dynamic random access memory, and one-time programmable read only memory.

9. The semiconductor device according to claim 1 , wherein the third substrate includes circuitry from the group consisting of a logic circuit, circuit block of a pipeline processing portion, a counter, a static random access memory, a micro processing unit, an array controller, and a dynamic random access memory controller.

10. The semiconductor device according to claim 1 , wherein the third substrate is configured to output the data from the second substrate.

11. The semiconductor device according to claim 1 , wherein the semiconductor device is an image sensor.

12. A sensing system comprising:
a sensing device configured to convert light into a signal from a first substrate, the first substrate includes the sensing device;
a second substrate configured to output an amount of heat when converting the signal from the first substrate into data, the amount of heat is less than a different amount of heat; and
a third substrate configured to output the different amount of heat when processing either the signal from the first substrate or the data from the second substrate, the second substrate is between the first substrate and the third substrate; and
a micro processing unit that processes the signal from the first substrate and a signal from another sensing device,
wherein the sensing device includes a pixel portion that is configured to convert the light into an output, the second substrate includes an analog to digital converter that is configured to convert the output into the signal from the first substrate.

Assignees

• Sony Corp

Inventors

• Asayama Go
• Sharma Anup

Classifications

• H10W90/00 Primary

  Package configurations · CPC title

• H04N25/79

  Arrangements of circuitry being divided between different or multiple substrates, chips or circuit boards, e.g. stacked image sensors · CPC title

• H04N25/78

  Readout circuits for addressed sensors, e.g. output amplifiers or A/D converters · CPC title

• H04N25/68

  applied to defects · CPC title

• H04N25/75

  Circuitry for providing, modifying or processing image signals from the pixel array · CPC title