FDTD-based optical simulations methodology for CMOS image sensor pixels architecture and process optimization

Flavien Hirigoyen; Axel Crocherie; Jérôme M. Vaillant; Yvon Cazaux

doi:10.1117/12.766391

29 February 2008 FDTD-based optical simulations methodology for CMOS image sensors pixels architecture and process optimization

Flavien Hirigoyen, Axel Crocherie, Jérôme M. Vaillant, Yvon Cazaux

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6816, Sensors, Cameras, and Systems for Industrial/Scientific Applications IX; 681609 (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.766391
Event: Electronic Imaging, 2008, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

This paper presents a new FDTD-based optical simulation model dedicated to describe the optical performances of CMOS image sensors taking into account diffraction effects. Following market trend and industrialization constraints, CMOS image sensors must be easily embedded into even smaller packages, which are now equipped with auto-focus and short-term coming zoom system. Due to miniaturization, the ray-tracing models used to evaluate pixels optical performances are not accurate anymore to describe the light propagation inside the sensor, because of diffraction effects. Thus we adopt a more fundamental description to take into account these diffraction effects: we chose to use Maxwell-Boltzmann based modeling to compute the propagation of light, and to use a software with an FDTD-based (Finite Difference Time Domain) engine to solve this propagation. We present in this article the complete methodology of this modeling: on one hand incoherent plane waves are propagated to approximate a product-use diffuse-like source, on the other hand we use periodic conditions to limit the size of the simulated model and both memory and computation time. After having presented the correlation of the model with measurements we will illustrate its use in the case of the optimization of a 1.75&mgr;m pixel.

Citation Download Citation

Flavien Hirigoyen, Axel Crocherie, Jérôme M. Vaillant, and Yvon Cazaux "FDTD-based optical simulations methodology for CMOS image sensors pixels architecture and process optimization", Proc. SPIE 6816, Sensors, Cameras, and Systems for Industrial/Scientific Applications IX, 681609 (29 February 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.766391

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