US Patent 7344937 Methods and apparatus with silicide on conductive structures

Exemplary embodiments of the invention provide pixel circuits having transistors with silicide on top of their gate stacks. In the exemplary embodiments, silicide forming material does not contaminate other components such as the photoconversion devices of an imager integrated circuit (IC). The photoconversion devices are blocked during silicide formation and are therefore not contaminated with silicide or metallic components. In other exemplary embodiments, each pixel of an imager also includes an optional in-pixel capacitor that has stabilized capacitance versus voltage characteristics due to its metal-dielectric-polysilicon structure, where the metal is a metal silicide over a conductive silicon layer.