Abstract

We propose a novel annealing technique in order to improve the dark characteristics for CMOS image sensor without deteriorating transistor characteristics. Microwave annealing (MWA) has been studied as an alternative annealing technique for diffusion-less dopant activation in advanced CMOS technology. We employed MWA technique in order to recover crystalline defects in CMOS image sensor (CIS) process. We demonstrate that MWA can be implemented a low thermal budget to obtain the effect of repairing the ion-implantation damage equivalent to conventional furnace annealing (FA). MWA can repair the process damage without transistor performance degradation by additional thermal treatment. MWA is promising technique for repairing crystalline defects in high performance image sensing devices with high frame rate, low power and excellent dark characteristics.