Color filter configuration for a silicon wafer to be diced into photosensitive chips
View Patent ↗An architecture and manufacturing method for photosensitive chips, such as used in office equipment and digital cameras, involves creating grooves between chip areas in a wafer, and then placing a light-transmissive planar layer over the main surface of the wafer. The planar layer, which may be acrylic-based, creates a substantially planar surface over both the photosites in the chip areas and the grooves. The planar layer in turn supports one or more light-transmissive filtering layers. The arrangement avoids damage to the filtering layers when the wafer is diced along the grooves.
1. An imaging apparatus having a first photosensitive chip, the chip comprising:
a main surface, having at least one photosite thereon, the main surface defining an edge;
a groove portion defined at the edge;
a light-transmissive planar layer disposed over the main surface, the planar layer forming a planar surface substantially parallel with the main surface, the planar layer extending over the groove portion; and
a light-transmissive filtering layer disposed over the planar layer.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 , the planar layer comprising acrylic.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 , the filtering layer comprising acrylic.
4. The apparatus of claim 1 , the planar layer being substantially transmissive of visible light, and the filtering layer being transmissive of a predetermined range of wavelengths of light.
5. The apparatus of claim 1 , the filtering layer comprising a first portion transmissive of a first predetermined range of wavelengths of light and a second portion transmissive of a second predetermined range of wavelengths of light.
6. The apparatus of claim 5 , the chip including a plurality of photosites on the main surface thereof, the first portion being disposed over a first set of photosites on the first chip and the second portion being disposed over a second set of photosites on the first chip.
7. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a second photosensitive chip, the second chip having a planar layer and a filtering layer arranged substantially similarly to the first chip.
8. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a second photosensitive chip, the second chip having a plurality of photosites thereon, the first chip and the second chip being arranged to yield a single functional array of photosites.
9. The apparatus of claim 8 , the second chip having a planar layer and a filtering layer arranged substantially similarly to the first chip.