	US 11,929,377 B2
	Image sensor comprising an array of pixels for reducing the shadowing effect, and corresponding designing method and computer program product
Mitra Damghanian, Cesson-Sevigne (FR); Oksana Shramkova, Cesson-Sevigne (FR); and Valter Drazic, Betton (FR)
Assigned to InterDigital CE Patent Holdings, SAS, Paris (FR)
Appl. No. 16/958,459
Filed by InterDigital CE Patent Holdings, Paris (FR)
PCT Filed Dec. 20, 2018, PCT No. PCT/EP2018/086335 § 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jun. 26, 2020, PCT Pub. No. WO2019/129659, PCT Pub. Date Jul. 4, 2019.
Claims priority of application No. 17306935 (EP), filed on Dec. 27, 2017.
Prior Publication US 2021/0066371 A1, Mar. 4, 2021
Int. Cl. H01L 27/146 (2006.01)

CPC H01L 27/14621 (2013.01) [H01L 27/14605 (2013.01); H01L 27/14625 (2013.01)]

4 Claims

1. An image sensor comprising an array of pixels,

wherein a set of pixels of the array comprises pixels with different height levels arranged according to their height level and relative position to an optical axis of the image sensor,

wherein each pixel of the set can take one height level i among N different height levels, N≥3, where i=1 is the smallest height level and i=N is the highest height level, and wherein, for a pixel of the set having a first height level equal to n,2≤n≤N, and an adjacent pixel of the set having a second height level equal to m, lower than the first height level, in at least one of horizontal, vertical, or diagonal scanning direction, from a point at which the optical axis intersects the image sensor to at least one rim of the image sensor, the second height level m is equal to n−1,

wherein the array comprises rows and columns of pixels, and wherein pixels having each of the different height levels i are present in each row and each column of the array;

wherein the pixels of the set comprise color filters, and wherein, for each pixel, the height level of the pixel depends on the color selectivity of the color filter;

wherein the height pattern comprises 50% of pixels with a green color filter, 25% of pixels with a blue color filter, and 25% of pixels with a red color filter, and wherein the pixels with different color filters are interleaved in the height pattern; and

wherein the height pattern comprises 8×8 pixels arranged as follows:


RGBGGBGR		BGRGGRGB
GBGRRGBG		GRGBBGRG
BGRGGRGB		RGBGGBGR
GRGBBGRG	or	GBGRRGBG
GRGBBGRG		GBGRRGBG
BGRGGRGB		RGBGGBGR
GBGRRGBG		GRGBBGRG
RGBGGBGR		BGRGGRGB

where R stands for a pixel with a red color filter, B stands for a pixel with a blue color filter and G stands for a pixel with a green color filter.