Technical Field
The disclosure relates in general to a semiconductor sensor device, and more particularly to a semiconductor sensor device with adjustable color appearance.
Description of the Related Art
Fingerprint sensors have become more and more popular in user authentication, since biometric information is more reliable than conventional methods of using IDs and passwords, and thus have been applied in various portable electronic devices, such as mobile phones, tablet computers, and etc. On the other hand, requirements for appearance designs of portable electronic devices have increased as well.
Therefore, there is a need for a fingerprint sensor that is suitable for installation in portable electronic devices while keeping the appearance design of portable electronic devices attractive to customers.
The disclosure is directed to a semiconductor sensor device. In the embodiments, in the semiconductor sensor device, a phase grating structure having periodically arranged patterns is disposed on the pixels; accordingly, the color appearance of the semiconductor sensor device can be adjusted by varying the design of the periodically arranged patterns of the phase grating structure.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a semiconductor sensor device is disclosed. The semiconductor sensor device includes a plurality of pixels and a phase grating structure. The phase grating structure has periodically arranged patterns and is disposed on the pixels.
The disclosure will become apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred but non-limiting embodiments. The following description is made with reference to the accompanying drawings.
In the embodiments, in the semiconductor sensor device, a phase grating structure having periodically arranged patterns is disposed on the pixels; accordingly, the color appearance of the semiconductor sensor device can be adjusted by varying the design of the periodically arranged patterns of the phase grating structure. The embodiments are described in details with reference to the accompanying drawings. The procedures and details of the method of the embodiments are for exemplification only, not for limiting the scope of protection of the disclosure. Moreover, the identical elements of the embodiments are designated with the same reference numerals. Also, it is also important to point out that the illustrations may not be necessarily be drawn to scale, and that there may be other embodiments of the present disclosure which are not specifically illustrated. Thus, the specification and the drawings are to be regard as an illustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense.
Referring to
In some embodiments, the semiconductor sensor device 100 may be a fingerprint sensor or a CMOS image sensor, both including pixel arrays and having adjustable color appearance. For example, the semiconductor sensor device 100 may be a capacitance silicon type fingerprint sensor or a RF field type fingerprint sensor.
The periodically arranged patterns of the phase grating structure give an effect that the semiconductor sensor device 100 shows certain color appearance. Particularly, the periodically arranged patterns repeat themselves and show periodicity, and such repeatability and periodicity of the patterns provide that the semiconductor sensor device 100 covered with the periodically arranged patterns shows uniform color appearance. According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the color appearance of the semiconductor sensor device 100 is adjustable by varying the design of the periodically arranged patterns of the phase grating structure. The descriptions and embodiments of the periodically arranged patterns will be described in details with reference to the accompanying drawings in the following paragraphs.
As shown in
The semiconductor sensor device 100 may further include a passivation layer 120, a recap oxide layer 130, and a nitride layer 140. In the embodiment, the passivation layer 120 is formed on the planarization layer 110, the recap oxide layer 130 is formed on the passivation layer 120, and the nitride layer 140 is formed on the recap oxide layer 130. The passivation layer 120 is formed of oxide, such as silicon oxide, and the nitride layer 140 is formed of such as silicon nitride. While micro-scratches may be formed on the top surface of the passivation layer 120 after a CMP process is performed thereon, the recap oxide layer 130 formed on the micro-scratches can provide an improve planarization. In the embodiment, the passivation layer 120 has a height of about 13 K Å, and the nitride layer 140 has a height of about 7 K Å.
In an embodiment, the periodically arranged patterns may be formed in at least one of the passivation layer 120, the recap oxide layer 130, or the nitride layer 140. That is, the periodically arranged patterns may be fabricated within the structure of the passivation layer 120, the recap oxide layer 130, and/or the nitride layer 140. In the manufacturing process, the periodically arranged patterns may be fabricated together with or after the formation of the passivation layer 120, the recap oxide layer 130, and/or the nitride layer 140.
As shown in
In an embodiment, the periodically arranged patterns may be formed in the protection layer 150. That is, according to the embodiments of the present disclosure, the periodically arranged patterns may be formed in at least one of the above-mentioned oxide layers 151, 155 and the nitride layers 153, 157.
In some embodiments, the periodically arranged patterns of the phase grating structure are aligned with each other and uniform in size and shape. The periodically arranged patterns may be polygonal shaped, circular shaped, elliptical shaped, strip shaped, hollow shaped, grid-shaped, or serrated strip shaped. However, the selections of the shape(s) of the periodically arranged patterns may vary depending on the conditions applied and are not limited thereto.
In some embodiments, the periodically arranged patterns may further comprise at least two different sets of periodic patterns. That is, the at least two sets of the periodic patterns may have different sizes and/or shapes, however, each of the sets of the periodic patterns comprises patterns repeated themselves periodically and having uniform size and shape. The at least two sets of the periodic patterns may be combined and form the phase grating structure in a variety of fashions, and different combinations may result in different color appearances. In other words, the color appearance of the semiconductor sensor device 100 is adjustable according to how these sets of the periodic patterns are structurally combined. Besides, the at least two sets of the periodic patterns have different refractive indexes due to the structural differences. In practical, the fashions of the combinations may vary depending on the conditions applied, as long as the resulted phase grating structure is provided with certain uniform color appearance of the semiconductor sensor device 100.
In an embodiment, the pixels P may have a size S of about 60 μm×60 μm, and the periodically arranged patterns may have dimensions of 1-2.5 μm. Accordingly, compared with the size of the pixels P, the size of the periodically arranged patterns is so small that the sensor functions of the semiconductor sensor device 100, such as a fingerprint sensor or a CMOS image sensor, would not be influenced by the phase grating structure.
In an embodiment, the periodically arranged patterns have a height, and the ratio of the height to the dimension, e.g. width, length, or diameter, of the periodically arranged patterns, is about 1:1. For example, while the periodically arranged patterns have dimensions of 1-2.5 μm, the height of the periodically arranged patterns may be 1-2.5 μm. However, the heights and the dimensions of the periodically arranged patterns may vary according to the conditions applied and are not limited thereto. In some embodiments, the phase grating structure may have an adjustable height for adjusting the color appearance of the semiconductor sensor device 100.
A number of embodiments are disclosed below to provide detailed descriptions of the phase grating structure of the disclosure. Referring to
As shown in
Furthermore, since the indentations are filled with an overlying layer formed of a material different from that of the phase grating structure 260, the first region 261 has a refractive index different from that of the second region 263. For example, referring to
In an alternative embodiment, the structural arrangement of the protrusions of the first region 261 and the indentations of the second region 263, as shown in
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
In some embodiments, the phase grating structure may be a layer having cavities or channels, the cavities or the channels being the periodically arranged patterns. For example, as shown in
The structure as shown in
As shown in
As shown in Table 1, the color appearance of the semiconductor sensor device can be changed by varying the design of the periodically arranged patterns of the phase grating structure. Furthermore, according to the results shown in Table 1, similar designs are provided with similar color appearances. For example, the structural arrangements of the periodically arranged patterns of the phase grating structures 260 and 360 are similar, between which the main difference is in the shapes of the patterns; accordingly, the color appearances of the phase grating structures 260 and 360 are dark red and bluish dark red, respectively, which are similar. Therefore, according to the embodiments of the present disclosure, it is evident that the color appearance of the semiconductor sensor device can be adjusted by systematically varying the design of the periodically arranged patterns of the phase grating structure.
In addition, according to the embodiments of the present disclosure, the phase grating structure for adjusting the color appearance of the semiconductor sensor device can be manufactured in one step with high precision, without having to perform multiple manufacturing steps, such as multiple deposition processes, to form multiple films for showing a certain color appearance. As such, the manufacturing process of the semiconductor sensor device is simplified, and the precision of the whole manufacturing process is improved.
While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of the preferred embodiment(s), it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements and procedures, and the scope of the appended claims therefore should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements and procedures.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20150155321 A1 | Jun 2015 | US |