Pattern Transfer Techniques for Fabrication of Lenslet Arrays for Solid State Imagers

The present invention relates to methods of forming lenslet array for solid state image sensors.

Solid state imagers consist of two principal parts; an image-forming part (i.e., a lens) and an image-capture part (i.e., an electronic image sensor device). The image is projected by the lens onto the surface of the electronic image sensor device at which surface the image is divided uniformly into many small picture elements or "pixels". These pixels are quite small and typically range in size from less than ten microns to over 100 microns across. The electronic image sensor itself is typically a silicon chip upon which an array of photodiodes has been fabricated such that each pixel is associated with a single photodiode element.

A subset of electronic sensors are known as "interline" devices. In these devices the area of the photodiode is significantly less than that of the pixel. A lightshield is placed over the pixel area except in the photodiode region to prevent light from entering other light-sensitive device elements such as the transfer gate or the shift register which are within the pixel area but outside the photodiode. Consequently any light that falls on a particular pixel outside the photodetector area can not be captured unless some sort of optical condensing element such as a lenslet is positioned between the light source and the photodetector. The desired characteristics of the lenslet array are 1) the lenslets must be properly aligned with respect to the photodiode array, 2) the lenslets must be properly spaced from the photodiode, or, alternatively, the index of refraction and the radius of curvature must be such that the resulting focal length of the lenslet is approximately equal to the distance between the lenslets and the photodiodes, 3) the lenslets must be optically transparent and remain so in ambient conditions, 4) the lenslets must be as closely spaced as possible to minimize non-captured light, and 5) the lenslets must be as uniform as possible.

Integrated microlens structures and fabrication processes were disclosed by Y. Ishihara et al., "A High Photosensitivity IL-CCD Image Sensor with Monolithic Resin Lens Array," International Electron Devices Meeting, 1983, pp. 497-500, for cylindrical lenslet arrays and Popovic et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,291, for spherical lenslet arrays. Aspects of both of these methods are summarized in FIG. 1. According to FIG. 1A, a thick layer of photosensitive resin is deposited on an organic planarization/spacer layer 14 and then photolithographically patterned into stripe-like (former case) or cylinder-like lenslet precursor structures 12 (latter case). The organic planarization/spacer layer 14 itself is deposited directly on the surface of the solid-state image sensor. It will be understood that the planarization/spacer layer 14 could be deposited on top of other layers which have been deposited on the surface of the solid state sensor. These additional layers could include patterned dye color filter arrays (such as might be found in color solid state imaging devices), light shield layers, or other planarization layers. These cylinder-like lenslet precursor structures 12 are then heated sufficiently to cause them to reflow, thereby forming semi-cylinder or semi-spherical lenslets 16 (see FIG. 1B). There are several problems with this way of forming lenslet arrays. First of all, especially for electronic color imagers, typical photosensitive resins contain components which absorb in the blue region of the visible spectrum. This results in a distortion of the color spectrum or "yellowing" of the scene that is "seen" by the photodetector array through an adjacent array of color filters. Moreover, the color distortion increases with time due to oxidation of the resin. A second difficulty with this method of forming lenslet arrays is that the resolution with which the photosensitive resin can be patterned is limited by the thickness of the resin layer. The thicker the resin layer, the farther apart the lenslets in the array and, consequently, the less the light collection efficiency of the array. On the other hand, the resin layer must be thick enough so that, when reflowed, the sag of the resultant lenslets is sufficient to cause the desired focusing effect. Accordingly, it is not possible to obtain the highest possible collection efficiency with lenslet arrays fabricated in this manner.

Alternative lenslet fabrication techniques have been proposed which avoid some of the difficulties mentioned above. In these techniques the photolithographic patterning and lens-forming functions are separated. The photosensitive resin serves as both the patterning means and the lens-forming means in the aforementioned technique.

FIG. 2 illustrates an alternative scheme disclosed by Y. Hokari in Japanese Kokai Patent Application No. Hei 4[1992]-226073. In the figure, a lenslet-forming layer 18 is made of a transparent inorganic material such as SiO.sub.2 which is deposited on the surface of an organic planarizing spacer layer 14 which is in turn deposited on the surface of the electronic image sensor chip. A thick photosensitive resin layer is then deposited on lenslet-forming layer 18 and patterned to form lenslet precursors 12 (FIG. 2A). The resin precursors are subsequently transformed into semi-spherical shapes 16 by thermal reflowing (FIG. 2B). As shown in FIG. 2C, inorganic transparent lenslets 20 are then created by transferal of the lens-shaped pattern formed by the reflowed resin to the lenslet-forming layer 18 by reactive ion etching. Next, SiO.sub.2 is deposited selectively only on the surfaces of the inorganic transparent lenslets 20 by means of well-known "spin on glass" or SOG techniques to form lenslet covering films 22 which is shown in FIG. 2D. In this fashion, the spacing between the lenslets can be effectively reduced to zero thereby increasing the light capturing efficiency of the lenslets. One difficulty with this method is the formation of thick layers (i.e. 10 microns) of inorganic materials such as SiO.sub.2 especially on organic bases. Deposition techniques such as RF (radio frequency) sputtering require several hours of deposition time to form such thick layers. During such lengthy deposition times the organic base can become hot enough to decompose. Furthermore thick layers of inorganic materials tend to be mechanically unstable and crack or peel, especially when deposited on organic bases. In addition, films of SOG can require treatment at temperatures as high as 400.degree. C. in order to become fully densified. Clearly the high temperatures associated with thick film inorganic layer deposition are incompatible with both the electronic image sensor substrate and the organic layers. Finally, it is extremely difficult to control the reactive ion etch conditions in order to transfer the lens pattern in the organic resin faithfully to the inorganic layer. Exact etch conditions must be found for which the etch rates of the organic and inorganic materials are identical. Deviations from these conditions or non-uniformity of the etch conditions will result in the formation of unacceptable lenslet arrays. Reactive ion etching can also result in unacceptably rough lenslet surface finishes.

Another alternative scheme for lenslet fabrication is described by H. Kawashima et al. in Japanese Kokai Patent Application No. Hei 3[1991]-297167. Referring to FIG. 3, a thick (i.e., several microns) transparent inorganic planarization/spacer layer 24 is deposited on the surface of the electronic image sensor chip. A thick (i.e., 2 to 10 micron) lenslet-forming layer 26 is then deposited on the planarization/spacer layer 24. This lenslet-forming layer is made of a transparent thermoplastic resin such as PMMA (polymethylmethacrylate), PGMA (polyglycidylmethacrylate), PMIPK (polymethylisopropenylketone), etc. Next a first photosensitive resin layer 28 is deposited on the lenslet-forming layer as shown in FIG. 3A. After photolithographically patterning the first photosensitive resin layer, the pattern is transferred to the lenslet-forming layer by means of oxygen plasma etching (FIG. 3B). The inorganic planarization/spacer layer 24 behaves as an etch-stop for the oxygen plasma etch process. The first photosensitive resin mask 30 is removed with a release solution (ethanol, acetone, etc.) leaving lenslet precursor structures 32 in the thermoplastic resin. The transparent microlens array is then created by thermally reflowing the lenslet precursor structures to form semi-spherical structures 34 which are shown in FIG. 3C. The disclosure goes on to describe the application and patterning of a second photosensitive resin etch-mask 36 which is shown in FIG. 3D. A wet etch solvent is used to remove unwanted portions of the transparent inorganic planarization/spacer layer 38 and the residual resist is removed with a solvent such as ethanol as shown in FIG. 3E. Patterning of the planarization/spacer layer is necessary in order to provide access to electrical contacts of individual electronic imagers. Several of these imagers are fabricated on a single silicon wafer which is subsequently diced into separate devices. If the planarization/spacer layer is patterned prior to spin-coating the lenslet-forming layer, nonuniform coating of the lenslet-forming layer results. This in turn causes nonuniformity of the lenslet array. The fabrication sequence described in FIG. 3 is designed to avoid this problem.

As mentioned with respect to the previously cited reference of Hokari, the deposition of thick inorganic layers is usually problematical due to the long deposition times or high processing temperatures or both. The Kawashima reference also suffers from the fact that most organic photosensitive resins are not immune to erosion by oxygen plasma etching. This lack of selectivity implies that the resin mask will erode as the thick thermoplastic resin layer is being etched and will result in poorly formed lenslet precursor structures and consequently poorly formed semi-spherical lenslets. Even if the selectivity of the photosensitive resin were to be sufficient to withstand exposure to the lengthy oxygen plasma etch process, the difficulty of removing the residual resist prior to reflowing the thermoplastic resin and after patterning the inorganic planarization/spacer layer is problematical. Solvents that are used to remove the photoresists (i.e., ethanol, acetone) can also dissolve the organic thermoplastic resin.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide lenslet arrays for image sensors which eliminate the above noted difficulties.

This object is achieved by a method for forming lenslets which collect light and focuses it onto photosensitive elements of an electronic imager, comprising the steps of:

(a) providing a transparent lenslet-forming layer on a substrate or on layer(s) on the substrate;

(b) forming a thin etch-stop layer on the transparent lenslet-forming layer and patterning the etch-stop layer to form a mask so that the pattern corresponds to lenslets to be formed;

(c) anisotropically plasma etching the transparent lenslet-forming layer according to the pattern;

(d) removing the thin etch-stop mask; and

(e) thermally reflowing the patterned transparent layer to form the transparent lenslets.

In accordance with the present invention, completely transparent microlenses can be formed in a closely packed array such that light incident on said array can be efficiently collected and focused onto the electronic sensor photodetector array. Moreover, the present invention allows sufficient flexibility in the choice of materials which constitute the lenslet array so that physical parameters such as index of refraction and softening temperature can be varied so as to optimize performance and utility of the electronic sensor device.

Several advantages of the present invention will be appreciated. First of all, the optical and physical properties of the lenslet-forming material can be selected independently of the properties of the photosensitive pattern-forming layer. Because of this flexibility, it is possible to select the lenslet-forming material in such a way as to optimize the performance of the imager. For example, the index of refraction can be selected which gives rise to optimum light collection efficiency or the T.sub.g (glass transition temperature) can be chosen such that subsequent thermal steps or applications involving heating to elevated temperatures would not degrade lenslet shape or performance. This means that optically transparent non-yellowing lenslets can be formed. Furthermore, the time required to sputter deposit thin inorganic etch-stop layers is very brief which reduces the manufacturing costs relative to the above-mentioned patents which require thick inorganic layers. In addition, the brief deposition time of thin inorganic etch-stop layers means that substrate heating is limited. Furthermore, thin layers of inorganic materials deposited on organic bases tend to be more stable mechanically than thick inorganic layers. In addition, thin etch-stop layers are easier to remove after the oxygen plasma RIE (reactive ion etching) than thicker layers would be.

As mentioned previously, only very thin photosensitive resin and etch-stop layers are required in the present invention. The photosensitive resin is used only as an intermediate masking layer for the very thin etch-stop layer. The etch-stop layer can be very thin owing to its high degree of resistance to the oxygen plasma etch. This means that the thin photosensitive resin and the thin etch-stop layers can be patterned with much higher resolution than would be possible with thicker layers. Replication of this resolution in the transparent organic lenslet-forming layer is made possible by virtue of the near-verticality of the oxygen plasma etched walls. Consequently the lenslets can be formed much closer together than would be otherwise possible. It will be appreciated that this is achieved without the need for over coating with additional thick inorganic layers as in the case of the prior art due to Hokari.

Yet another advantage of the present invention is that the thin photosensitive resin layer is automatically removed during the oxygen plasma etching process which transfers the patterned etch-stop structure to the transparent lenslet-forming layer. Thus the need to employ resin removal solvents which could dissolve away the lenslet layer is eliminated. This is a clear advantage over the previously-cited prior art due to Kawashima.

It will be appreciated that a second embodiment of the invention additionally avoids the problem of nonuniform lenslet thickness while at the same time eliminating some of the difficulties associated with prior art solutions to this problem. It also has the advantage that the thickness uniformity of the planarization/spacer pad 68 (see FIG. 5E) and footprints of the lenslets 72 (see FIG. 5G) are precisely defined by the presence of the patterned thin etch-stop structures 56 and 70, respectively. The footprint confinement feature is similar to that described in the prior art patent of Popovic cited previously.

FIGS. 1A and 1B show various steps in a conventional process for forming lenslets;

FIG. 2 shows a series of steps (A-D) in another conventional process for forming lenslets;

FIG. 3 shows a series of steps (A-E) in yet another prior method for forming lenslets;

FIG. 4 shows a series of steps (A-E) for forming lenlets in accordance with the present invention; and

FIG. 5 shows a series of steps (A-G) for forming lenlets in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

In the present invention, use is made of the so-called "trilayer" processing technique to avoid many of the difficulties associated with prior art. Trilayer reactive ion etching-portable conformable mask (RIE-PCM) systems have been known for some time in the IC industry as a means of forming structures with high aspect ratios in organic planarizing layers. J. M. Moran and D. J. Maydan (Journal of Vacuum Science Technology, 1979, 16, pp 1620-1624) were the first to demonstrate the versatility and process compatibility of trilayer SiO.sub.2 RIE-PCM. The critical processing steps of the trilayer RIE-PCM system include spin-coating a thick organic planarization/spacer layer, plasma CVD (chemical vapor deposition) or RF sputter-coating a thin layer of inorganic material such as SiO.sub.2 (typically a few hundred .ANG. in thickness), spin-coating the photosensitive resin layer, exposing through the appropriate mask, developing the pattern, etching the exposed inorganic material, and transferring the pattern to the organic layer by means of oxygen plasma RIE. The advantage of this process is that only a thin layer of photosensitive resin is required to pattern the thin inorganic layer. The thin inorganic layer in turn acts as an etch-stop or etch-mask for the oxygen plasma RIE and the anisotropic nature of the etch results in near vertical walls in the thick organic planarization/spacer layer.

The key aspects of the present invention are illustrated with the help of FIG. 4. An organic planarization/spacer layer 14 is spin-coated on the silicon chip followed by a transparent organic lenslet-forming layer 40. As mentioned previously, it is understood that planarization/spacer layer 14 could be deposited on layer(s) that have been formed on the silicon chip substrate. The organic lenslet-forming layer can be any transparent polymer or other thermoplastic resin. The only constraints on the organic material chosen for this layer are that 1) it should maintain transparency under ambient conditions, i.e., it should not discolor due to oxidation or any other mechanisms, 2) it should have a sufficiently high index of refraction, 3) it should exhibit a glass softening temperature T.sub.g such that it will reflow at temperatures high enough to exceed the highest subsequent wafer process temperature and low enough that existing organic structures and electronic elements will not be damaged, and 4) it should be free from metallic elements that form impervious oxides during oxygen plasma etching. Typical candidates for the transparent lenslet-forming layer could be any one of a number of organic materials such as polyacrylates or methacrylates, polycarbonates, polyesters, polyolefins, polystyrenes, polyimides, polyurethanes, polyethers, polyamides, polysulphones, or even evaporated or spun-on low molecular weight organic glasses among others. Following the deposition of the transparent lenslet-forming layer 40 is the deposition of a thin layer 42 of inorganic material such as SiO.sub.2. This layer needs to be only 100 to 500 .ANG. in thickness and can be deposited by one of several means including RF-sputtering, plasma CVD, thermal evaporation, or SOG. It will be appreciated that this thin inorganic layer serves as a temporary etch-stop and need not necessarily be restricted to SiO.sub.2. Other candidate inorganic etch-stop materials include but are not restricted to Si.sub.3 N.sub.4, silicon, germanium, amorphous carbon, titanium, or organometallic glasses and polymers. Following the etch-stop layer, a thin layer of photosensitive resin is spin-coated on the laminate structure. It will be further appreciated that this photosensitve layer need not be very thick: a photosensitve resin layer as thin as one or two thousand .ANG. would be sufficient. This is possible because the photoresist is used merely to pattern the etch-stop layer and is not used to form the lenslet itself. As shown in FIG. 4A, the photosensitive resin is exposed with a suitable mask and developed. The thin photosensitive resin mask pattern 44 is subsequently transferred to the thin etch-stop layer 42 by either wet- or dry-etch techniques to form the thin etch-stop mask 46 (FIG. 4B) and transferred once again by means of oxygen plasma etching to the transparent organic lenslet-forming layer (FIG. 4C). The thin inorganic etch-stop mask 46 serves as a highly selective etch-stop and protects the organic material below from etching by the oxygen plasma. It will be still further appreciated that due to the high degree of anisotropy of the oxygen plasma RIE and the high selectivity of the inorganic etch-stop, the etched walls of the lenslet-forming layer will be nearly vertical giving rise to well-defined lenslet footprints and permitting smaller separations between the individual lenslets. This results in greater effective light collection area or, alternatively speaking, greater collection efficiency for each lenslet. The etch process is terminated after a prescribed time interval chosen such that the interval is adequate for the transparent lenslet-forming layer to be completely removed in those areas unprotected by the inorganic etch-stop mask. It will be still further appreciated that the duration of the oxygen plasma etch is not critical: it is unimportant if the planarization/spacer layer 14 is partially etched in the regions between the lenslets since none of the light incident upon these areas will be collected anyway. After removal of the patterned thin inorganic etch-stop mask by means of standard wet or dry etch techniques, transparent lenlets precursor structures 48 of the lenslet-forming material are left as shown in FIG. 4D. The shapes of these structures are changed to approximately semispherical shapes 50 by thermally reflowing the organic transparent lenslet-forming material (FIG. 4E).

As mentioned previously, it is usually necessary to pattern the organic planarization/spacer layer to allow for electrical interconnects to the individual imagers. One possibility is to pattern the organic planarization/spacer layer prior to the lenslet fabrication sequence depicted in FIG. 4. However, this procedure is undesirable since it can result in nonuniform lenslet sag as mentioned earlier in connection with the previously-cited reference of Kawashima. Another possibility would be to employ the method proposed in the same Kawashima reference; namely, spin-coat a second photoresist layer on top of the completed lenslet array, expose the resist with the appropriate pattern, etch the planarization/space layer, and finally remove the resist with a suitable solvent. Unfortunately, this is not a desirable method either since the application and removal of the resist are likely to cause dissolution of the completed organic lenslets.

FIG. 5 illustrates a second embodiment of the present invention which avoids these difficulties by using a second inorganic etch-stop layer to pattern the planarization/spacer layer after the lenslet-forming layer has been spincoated. With reference to FIG. 5A an organic planarization/spacer layer 14 is spin-coated on the device substrate or on layer(s) on the device substrate. Next a first thin inorganic etch-stop layer 52 is deposited on the planarization/spacer layer followed by a first thin photosensitive resin layer. The first thin photosensitive resin layer is photolithographically patterned according to a photomask which defines the lateral boundaries of the planarization/spacer pads (FIG. 5A). The pattern of the resulting first thin photosensitive resin mask 54 is then transferred to the first thin etch-stop layer 52 by means of wet or dry etch techniques is described previously to form etch-stop mask 56 followed by the removal of the first photoresist mask (FIG. 5B). Lenslet-forming layer 58 is then spin-coated on first etch-stop mask 56 and a second thin inorganic etch-stop layer 60 is deposited on this lenslet-forming layer. Finally, a second thin resist layer 62 is spin-coated and photolithographically delineated with a pattern corresponding to the footprints of the individual lenslets. The second thin resist mask 62 is positioned such that it is precisely aligned with respect to the underlying first etch-stop mask 56 (FIG. 5C). Resist pattern 62 is transferred to second etch-stop layer 60 by means of wet or dry etch techniques as described previously to form second thin etch-stop mask 64 as shown in FIG. 5D. This pattern in turn is transferred to the lenslet-forming layer by means of oxygen plasma RIE. The duration of the plasma etch is such that lenslet precursor structures 66 are formed at the same time that the planarization/spacer pad 68 is formed (FIG. 5E). It will be appreciated that patterned layer 56 serves as an etch-stop to prevent erosion of the organic planarization/spacer pad in the regions between the cylinder-like lenslet precursor structures and at the same time serves as a mask to define the laterial limits of the planarization/spacer pad. A wet or dry etch process is used to remove the exposed inorganic etch-stop as shown in FIG. 5F and finally the lenslet precursor structures are thermally reflowed to form the semi-spherical transparent lenslet structures 72 shown in FIG. 5G. The T.sub.g of the organic planarization/spacer pad 68 is chosen so that it is higher than that of the lenslet-forming material. In this way, planarization/spacer pad 68 retains its shape during heating and reflowing of the lenslet precursor structures. As mentioned previously, the thickness uniformity of the lenslet-forming layer 58 is maintained since the planarization/spacer layer is patterned subsequent to the deposition of this layer. Furthermore the thickness uniformity of the planarization/spacer pad 68 is maintained due to the presence of the etch-stop mask 56. Finally, the patterned etch-stop mask 70 serves the additional function of confining the lateral flow of the lenslet precursor when it is heated to form the semi-spherical lenslet 72.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the trilayer RIE-PCM processing procedures outlined above in both embodiments of the invention could be replaced by trilayer Deep-UV PCM procedures. In this case, the inorganic thin film etch-stop layer would be replaced by a thin film of a material that is deep-UV blocking such as germanium-selenium or silicon. Furthermore the lenslet-forming layer would have to be deep-UV sensitive.

It will be further appreciated that the photosensitive resin layer and the etch-stop layer in both embodiments of the present invention could be replaced by a single photosensitive resin layer containing metallic elements such as silicon or tin. In the first embodiment, the process step illustrated in FIG. 4A could be eliminated entirely. Thin photosensitive resin mask 44 and thin inorganic etch-stop mask 46 in FIG. 4B would be replaced with a single thin (i.e. 2000 to 6000 .ANG. thick) photosensitive resin layer containing metallic elements. Likewise the process step(s) illustrated in FIG. 5C and/or FIG. 5A could be eliminated in the second embodiment of the present invention. Photosensitive materials containing metallic elements can be spin-coated, exposed, and developed in the usual manner. When exposed to oxygen RIE, these materials are partially converted to refractory metal oxides that can serve as an etch-stop material in place of the thin layer of SiO.sub.2 or other inorganic material previously described. For example, any of the metal-containing photoresist materials reviewed by T. Iwayanagi, et. al. (from "Electronic and Photonic Properties of Polymers," M. J. Bowden and S. R. Turner, eds., American Chemical Society: Washington D.C., 1988, pp 158-166) might be employed. This alternate practice has the advantage of combining the functions of the photosensitive resin and the etch-stop layers, thereby providing a simpler process. On the other hand, it exhibits a disadvantage in that the complex metallic oxide/organo-metallic polymer remaining after oxygen RIE is difficult to strip away. This material can only be removed by freon RIE followed by oxygen RIE or alternatively by RIE using a gas containing a mixture of both oxygen and freon. A second disadvantage is that the resolution obtainable with the alternative process is not as high as that of the trilayer process previously described. Finally, in the case of the second embodiment of the invention, a third disadvantage is that the portion of the patterned first thin etch-stop mask (corresponding to 70 in FIG. 5F) directly beneath the lenslet precursors (66 in FIG. 5F) can not be removed. This could result in unwanted absorption due to the "yellowing" phenomenon mentioned previously.

The invention has been described in detail with particular reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, but it will be understood that variations and modifications can be effected within the spirit and scope of the invention.

12 photosensitive resin lenslet precursor

14 organic planarization/spacer layer

16 photosensitive resin lenslet

18 inorganic transparent lenslet-forming layer

20 inorganic transparent lenslet

22 inorganic lenslet covering film

24 inorganic planarization/spacer layer

26 organic transparent lenslet-forming layer

28 first photosensitive resin layer

30 first photosensitive resin etch-mask

32 organic transparent lenslet precursor

34 organic transparent lenslet

36 second photosensitive resin etch-mask

38 inorganic planarization/spacer pad

40 organic transparent lenslet-forming layer

42 thin inorganic etch-stop layer

44 thin photosensitive resin mask

46 thin inorganic etch-stop mask

48 organic transparent lenslet precursor

50 organic transparent lenslet

52 first thin inorganic etch-stop layer

54 first thin photosensitive resin mask

56 first thin inorganic etch-stop mask

58 organic transparent lenslet-forming layer

60 second thin inorganic etch-stop layer

62 second thin photosensitive resin mask

64 second thin inorganic etch-stop mask

66 organic transparent lenslet precursor

68 organic planarization/spacer pad

70 patterned first thin inorganic etch-stop mask

72 organic transparent lenslet