Photodetectors are sensors that detect the presence of electromagnetic radiation. Semiconductor photodiodes are a category of photodetectors that use a P-N diode to convert incident photons into current. Photodiodes are used by many different technologies to sense one or more frequency of light, to determine the time at which transmitted light is reflected back to the photodiode, etc.
Avalanche photodiodes are a highly biased photodiodes in which photo-generated carriers are multiplied by avalanche breakdown in the device. Single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) are avalanche photodiodes which are sensitive enough to detect the incidence of a single photon, and have lower noise and jitter than typical photodiodes. As technology progresses, there is an increasing demand for further miniaturization and improvements to photodiode technology.
Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to a photodiode, a photodetector, and a method for forming a photodiode. The photodiode includes deep trench isolation (DTI) structures with a conductive material that is part of an electrode circuit of the photodiode.
In an embodiment, a photodiode device includes a semiconductor substrate, a plurality of pixels, each of the pixels including a diode structure on a first side of the substrate and a conductive layer on a second side of the substrate, and DTI structures isolating adjacent pixels from one another, the DTI structures including a conductive material electrically coupled to the conductive layer on the second side of the substrate and a metal line on the first side of the substrate.
An embodiment of a photodetector includes a photodiode device and a control circuit configured to control an operation of the photodiode device.
An embodiment of a method of forming a photodiode device includes providing a semiconductor substrate with first and second sides, the semiconductor substrate including a plurality of diode structures on the first side of the substrate respectively associated with a plurality of pixels, and a conductive layer on the second side of the substrate, and forming DTI structures isolating adjacent pixels from one another, the DTI structures including a conductive material that electrically couples the conductive layer on the second side of the substrate and a metal line on the first side of the substrate.
A detailed description of embodiments is provided below along with accompanying figures. The scope of this disclosure encompasses numerous alternatives, modifications and equivalents. Although steps of various processes are presented in a particular order, embodiments are not necessarily limited to being performed in the listed order. In some embodiments, certain operations may be performed simultaneously, in an order other than the described order, or not performed at all.
Numerous specific details are set forth in the following description. These details are provided to promote a thorough understanding of the scope of this disclosure by way of specific examples, and embodiments may be practiced according to the claims without some of these specific details. Accordingly, the specific embodiments of this disclosure are illustrative, and are not intended to be exclusive or limiting. For the purpose of clarity, technical material that is known in the technical fields related to this disclosure has not been described in detail so that the disclosure is not unnecessarily obscured.
Although the terms “first” and/or “second” may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms may be used merely to distinguish one element from another element. For instance, a first element discussed below could be termed a second element without departing from the teachings of the present disclosure. Similarly, the second element could also be termed the first element.
The drawings are not necessarily to scale and in some instances, proportions may have been exaggerated to clearly illustrate features of the embodiments. When a first element is referred to as being “on” a second element or “on” a substrate, it not only refers to a case where the first element is formed directly on the second element or the substrate but also a case where a third element exists between the first element and the second element or the substrate. An element “connected” or “coupled” to or with another element may be directly connected or coupled to or with the other element or, instead, one or more intervening elements may be present.
An APD is a type of photosensitive semiconductor device in which light is converted to electricity due to the photoelectric effect coupled with electric current multiplication as a result of avalanche breakdown. APDs differ from conventional photodiodes in that incoming photons internally trigger a charge avalanche. APDs can measure low levels of light, and are widely used in long-distance optical communications and optical distance measurement where high sensitivity is needed.
SPADs are a type of APD that is sensitive enough to detect the incidence of a single photon. SPADs trigger an avalanche phenomenon with respect to the incidence of a single photon by applying a bias voltage higher than the breakdown voltage, and output a corresponding voltage pulse. The diode of an SPAD may employ a wide band-gap semiconductor material such as SiC, GaN, GaAs, AlN, AlAs, BN, GaP, AlP, ZnTe, MnTe, MgTe, ZnS, MgS, HgS, PbI2, TlPbI3, TlBr, TlBrI, or InAlP.
Returning to
The diode structure 106 is disposed in a doped epitaxial silicon substrate material 114 that is doped with the second type of dopants. When the first type of dopants are N dopants, the second type of dopants are P dopants. In such an embodiment, doped region 108 may be an N+ doped region, first doped well 110 may be an N well, second doped well 112 may be a P well, the semiconductor material 114 may be a P-doped epitaxial substrate, and conductive layer 120 may be a buried P layer.
The diode structure 106 is surrounded by DTI structures 104. The DTI structures 104 include a conductive material 116 disposed in a center portion of the structures, and portions of the sidewalls of the trenches are lined with an insulating liner layer 118. The conductive material may be a metal material such as tungsten, aluminum or copper, or a highly doped semiconductor material. The insulating liner layer 118 may be an oxide material such as silicon oxide or aluminum oxide. Spaces between the DTI structures 104 and diode structure 106 are filled with semiconductor material 114.
An anti-reflective coating layer 122 is disposed over a doped conductive layer 120 on a second side of the substrate which is a light-facing side of the device, and a micro-lens 132 is disposed over the anti-reflective coating layer 122. The doped conductive layer 120 may be a buried doped layer that is doped with the first type of dopants that are the same type of dopants as first doped region 108. The micro-lens 132 may focus photons toward the diode structure 106, and may be formed of a polymer or fused silica material.
The conductive layer 120 has a higher doping than semiconductor material 114 and is disposed on an opposite side of the semiconductor material 114 from the diode structure 106. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the insulating liner layer 118 terminates below the top of the trenches to expose conductive layer 120. In an embodiment, as seen in
In another embodiment, the first dopants are P dopants and the second dopants are N dopants. In such an embodiment, the doped region 108 may be a P+ doped region, doped well 110 may be a P-well, doped well 112 may be an N-well, and the substrate material 114 may be an N-doped epitaxial silicon substrate. In such an embodiment, conductive layer 120 may be a buried N-doped layer, and the conductive layer 120 is a cathode pickup or cathode electrode of the device 100. Accordingly. the conductive layer 120 may be an anode electrode or a cathode electrode of the device 100 in different embodiments.
The second end or lower side of the conductive material 116 of the DTI structures 104 is coupled to a contact 124b, which in turn is coupled to a metal line 126b. Similarly, first doped region 108 is coupled to a contact 124a, which in turn is coupled to a metal line 126a.
The contacts 124 and metal lines 126 are part of a circuit structure of the photodiode device 100. The circuit structure may include circuitry for biasing the diode structure 106 and detecting voltage pulses caused by the incidence of photons. Collectively, the metal lines 126b, contacts 124b, DTI structures 104 and conductive layer 120 may provide an anode structure or a portion of an anode circuit of the photodiode 100.
The contacts 124 extend through, or penetrate, an etch stop layer 128 and a portion of an interlayer dielectric layer 130. The contacts 124 may be a metal material or a doped semiconductor, and the metal lines 126b may be tungsten, for example. The etch stop layer 128 may be a nitride or oxide material, and the interlayer dielectric layer 130 may be an oxide material such as silicon oxide.
A first embodiment of a process of forming a photodiode device 100 will now be explained with respect to
The substrate has a doped semiconductor region 114, and a buried doped layer (e.g, a buried N layer or a buried P layer) on the backside of the substrate that has a higher doping than the semiconductor material 114. The buried doped layer may be formed by implanting dopants into a semiconductor material when the substrate is formed.
The semiconductor substrate is flipped to expose the backside of the substrate including the buried doped layer, and a portion of backside surface is removed by a thinning operation to form conductive layer 120. The thinning operation may be a backgrinding operation that is accomplished by performing a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process until the remaining material has an appropriate thickness for an electrode of a photodiode. In such an embodiment, the thinned buried doped layer is the conductive layer 120.
As illustrated in
Next, trenches 136 are formed around diode structure 106. The trenches 136 may be formed by patterning a photoresist layer and performing an etch process in which the etch stop layer 128 and contacts 124 are used as etch stop materials. An insulation liner material 118a is deposited over the entire structure shown in
An etch process is performed to remove portions of the insulation liner material 118a. As seen in
Material 116a is deposited to fill trenches 136 as shown in
In the deposition process shown in
After removing material 116a from the upper surface, the hard mask layer 134 is removed. The hard mask layer 134 may be removed by performing an etch process using an etchant that removes the hard mask material while selectively leaving material 116b extending from the trenches substantially intact. Accordingly, the process to remove material 134 may use a material with etch chemistry that removes the hard mask material 134 and has high selectivity to material 116b.
The resulting structure from removing hard mask layer 134 is shown in
As seen with respect to
Each pixel 102 includes a diode structure 106, and the diode structure 106 has a first doped region 108 doped with a first dopant type, a first doped well 110 adjacent to the first doped region 108 and doped with the first type of dopants, and a second doped well 112 adjacent to the first doped well 110 and doped with a second dopant type. The diode structure 106 is disposed in a doped semiconductor material 114 doped with the second type of dopants.
The DTI structures 104 include a conductive material 116 disposed in a center part of the structures, and sidewalls of the trenches are lined with an insulating liner layer 118. An anti-reflective coating layer 122 is disposed over a conductive layer 120 on a light-facing side of the device, and a lensing structure such as a micro-lens 132 is disposed over the anti-reflective coating layer 122 to focus photons that encounter the photodiode 100 towards the diode structure 106.
Both the devices in
The opposite side of the conductive material 116 of the DTI structures 104 is coupled to a contact 124b, which in turn is coupled to a metal line 126b. Similarly, first doped region 108 is coupled to a contact 124a, which in turn is coupled to a metal line 126a. The contacts 124 and metal lines 126 are part of a circuit structure of the photodiode device 100, and the circuit structure may include circuitry for biasing the diode structure 106 and detecting voltage pulses caused by the incidence of photons. Collectively, the metal lines 126b, contacts 124b, DTI structures 104 and conductive layer 120 provide an anode or cathode structure of the photodiode 100 of both devices.
One difference between the embodiment of
In addition, upper portion 116b of the conductive material 116 may extend above the surface of anti-reflective layer 122 by a different distance than embodiment of
The second embodiment of process of forming a photodiode device 100 includes providing a semiconductor substrate including a plurality of diode structures 106, contacts 124, and metal lines 126 disposed on a frontside of the substrate along with corresponding circuit structures. The substrate has a doped semiconductor region 114, and a buried doped layer on the backside of the substrate that has a higher doping than the doped semiconductor region 114.
The semiconductor substrate is flipped to expose the backside of the substrate including the buried layer, and a portion of the buried P-layer is removed by a thinning operation to form conductive layer 120. As illustrated in
An insulation liner material 118a is deposited over the structure including sidewalls of trenches 136 and an upper surface of the device. As seen in
The openings in pattern 138 are larger than the trench openings so that the openings in the pattern expose portions of the insulation liner material 118a disposed on sidewalls of the trenches 136. In particular, the openings in pattern 138 expose an upper surface or corner of the insulation liner material 118a. The openings in pattern 138 may have a size that is at least the width of the trenches 136 minus the width of the insulation liner material 118a over sidewalls of the trenches.
An etch process, which may be an anisotropic dry etch process, is performed using pattern 138 as a mask. As seen in
Material 116a is deposited to fill trenches 136 as shown in
The second pattern 140 has lines that are aligned with trenches 136. In particular, the second pattern 140 may be a line type mask pattern that has a shape corresponding to the shape of DTI structures 104 in
An etch process is performed to remove portions of material 116a using second pattern 140 as an etch mask. Subsequently, second pattern 140 is removed, resulting in the structure shown in
As shown in
In the second embodiment of
Otherwise, the device in
Embodiments of the present disclosure have multiple advantages compared to conventional structures.
Because the embodiment in
On the other hand, it is possible to shrink the size of the intrinsic space while maintaining the same active area. Reducing the intrinsic space decreases the size (pitch) of a pixel, leading to increased pixel density on a device. It is possible to adjust both the intrinsic space and active area individually or simultaneously to achieve one or both of a higher fill factor and a higher pixel pitch compared to a conventional device.
There is a tradeoff between pixel pitch and fill factor depending on the size of the active area and the intrinsic space. In embodiments of the present disclosure, photon detection probability is maintained or increased and dark current is not substantially degraded compared to conventional devices.
In some embodiments, the photodiode device 100 is on a separate die from the control circuit 200, and the dies may be stacked in a three-dimensional structure and/or coupled to control circuit 200 by an interposer substrate. Accordingly, the photodetector 300 in
The resulting photodiode 100 is suitable for use in a variety of electronic devices, including imaging devices and focusing aides, optical devices including fiber-optic communication devices, cell phones, computer devices, security equipment, detection equipment including LiDAR, IoT and general household equipment, etc. The photodiode may be an avalanche photodiode or a single photon avalanche photodiode, for example.
Aspects of the present disclosure have been described in conjunction with the specific embodiments thereof that are proposed as examples. Numerous alternatives, modifications, and variations to the embodiments as set forth herein may be made without departing from the scope of the claims set forth below. Accordingly, embodiments as set forth herein are intended to be illustrative and not limiting.