Patent 8004026 was granted and assigned to Panasonic on August, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
In each photosensitive cell, a photodiode 101, a transfer gate 102, a floating diffusion layer section 103, an amplifier transistor 104, and a reset transistor 105 are formed in one active region surrounded by a device isolation region. The floating diffusion layer section 103 included in one photosensitive cell is connected not to the amplifier transistor 104 included in that cell but to the gate of the amplifier transistor 104 included in another photosensitive cell adjacent to the one photosensitive cell in the column direction. A polysilicon wire 111 connects the transfer gates 102 arranged in the same row, and a polysilicon wire 112 connects the reset transistors 105 arranged in the same row. For connection in the row direction, only polysilicon wires are used.