Fabrication of back-side illuminated complementary metal oxide semiconductor image sensor using compliant bump

We fabricated a back-side illuminated (BSI) complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor in which a very-thin BSI photodiode array chip was stacked on a CMOS read-out circuit chip by compliant bumps. Cone-shaped bumps made of Au were prepared as the compliant bumps. The base diameter was 10-12 μm and the height was 9-10 μm. To fabricate the BSI CMOS image sensor, we developed a novel thin-chip assembly process. The key features of the process are as follows: preparation of a photodiode array wafer and a CMOS read-out circuit wafer, Au cone bump formation, bonding to support glass, thinning of the photodiode array wafer to 21 μm, through silicon via (TSV) formation using Cu electroplating, formation of back-side electrodes, transfer of the photodiode array wafer to a polymer support tape, dicing of the photodiode array wafer, separation of support tape, formation of Ni-Au bumps, dicing of CMOS read-out circuit wafer, and three-dimensional (3D) chip-stacking. The BSI CMOS image sensor thus fabricated has the following specifications: number of active pixels is 16,384 (128 × 128), photodiode size is approximately 18 μm square, photodiode pitch is 24 μm, and fill factor is approximately 55%. No defects were observed in the obtained image frames.