1. Introduction
A color filter that selectively transmits or reflects input light is an important element in complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors [
1P. Catrysse, B. Wandell, and A. E. Gamal, “An integrated color pixel in 0.18 μm CMOS technology,” in 2001 International Electron Devices Meeting-Technical Digest (IEEE, 2001), pp. 559–562.
], liquid crystal display devices [
2
G. D. Sharp, K. M. Johnson, and D. Doroski, “Continuously tunable smectic A(*) liquid-crystal color filter,” Opt. Lett.
15(10), 523–525 (1990). [CrossRef]
[PubMed]
] and light emitting diodes [
3
Y. Cho, Y. K. Choi, and S. H. Sohn, “Optical properties of neodymium-containing polymethylmethacrylate films for the organic light emitting diode color filter,” Appl. Phys. Lett.
89(5), 051102 (2006). [CrossRef]
]. Filtering is at present most commonly realized by dye films but these filters yield inadequate color cross-talk properties as pixel sizes are reduced. Other color filtering techniques for imaging arrays have been investigated. One-dimensional (1D) gratings in silicon were shown to work as a bandpass color filter [
4
Y. Kanamori, M. Shimono, and K. Hane, “Fabrication of transmission color filters using silicon subwavelength gratings on quartz substrates,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett.
18(20), 2126–2128 (2006). [CrossRef]
]. Recently freestanding 1D gold coated gratings on a membrane were found to offer excellent optical transmission (87%) property in the midinfrared range [
5
S. Collin, G. Vincent, R. Haïdar, N. Bardou, S. Rommeluère, and J. L. Pelouard, “Nearly perfect Fano transmission resonances through nanoslits drilled in a metallic membrane,” Phys. Rev. Lett.
104(2), 027401 (2010). [CrossRef]
[PubMed]
]. However, devices based on a 1D structure have an intrinsic polarization dependency. A bull’s eye structure consisting of concentric grooves with a central hole was proposed as another candidate for color filters [
6
E. Laux, C. Genet, T. Skauli, and T. W. Ebbesen, “Plasmonic photon sorters for spectral and polarimetric imaging,” Nat. Photonics
2(3), 161–164 (2008). [CrossRef]
]. This method gave very good narrow band wavelength filtering, but the low fill ratio resulted in poor transmission efficiency. Ebbeson
et al. investigated the subwavelength holes in metal films and observed unexpected optical properties such as enhanced transmission of light through the holes and wavelength filtering due to the excitation of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) [
7
H. F. Ghaemi, T. Thio, D. E. Grupp, T. W. Ebbesen, and H. J. Lezec, “Surface plasmons enhance optical transmission through subwavelength holes,” Phys. Rev. B
58(11), 6779–6782 (1998). [CrossRef]
]. Following this discovery, researchers started to use two-dimensional (2D) hole arrays in metal films as color filters. A square-lattice hole array in a freestanding silver film was reported to demonstrate color filtering function [
8
W. L. Barnes, A. Dereux, and T. W. Ebbesen, “Surface plasmon subwavelength optics,” Nature
424(6950), 824–830 (2003). [CrossRef]
[PubMed]
]. Although the bandwidth of the transmission peak itself was small, multiple transmission peaks gave rise to cross talk. Furthermore, a freestanding structure limits practical application. Red and green color filters consisting of a square array of circular holes were designed and fabricated in a thin aluminum film [
9]. Unfortunately the green filter devices exhibited a yellow color due to the high color cross-talk. A reflective light modulator has also been demonstrated in a square-lattice hole array in a metal film supported by a microelectromechanical systems [
10]. The peak in the reflected light spectrum shifted when a voltage was applied to adjust the distance between the pixel array and the top glass plate of the devices.
For imaging applications, it is necessary to achieve low color cross-talk filtering and reasonably high transmission efficiency for three primary colors. It has been suggested that a triangular-lattice hole array will have a larger wavelength interval between the first two SPR peaks compared to a square-lattice hole array of a same period [
7
H. F. Ghaemi, T. Thio, D. E. Grupp, T. W. Ebbesen, and H. J. Lezec, “Surface plasmons enhance optical transmission through subwavelength holes,” Phys. Rev. B
58(11), 6779–6782 (1998). [CrossRef]
,
11
C. Genet and T. W. Ebbesen, “Light in tiny holes,” Nature
445(7123), 39–46 (2007). [CrossRef]
[PubMed]
]. So far very little experimental work on color filters, based on triangular-lattice hole arrays, has been reported. In addition, most research to date has used noble metals such as silver and gold. Gold, in particular, is incompatible with silicon microelectronics. In this Paper, we focus on transmitted color filters consisting of triangular-lattice hole arrays in aluminum films that are compatible with standard CMOS technology. Compared to silver and gold, aluminum is cheap and easy to fabricate although it has a slightly higher absorption loss. Aluminum also has good adhesion to many substrates making fabrication easier. Electron beam lithography and dry etch were used to fabricate subwavelength triangular-lattice hole arrays in aluminum films in this work. The measured transmission spectral responses agreed well with the simulation results using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. Good separation between the three primary colors with more than 30% transmission was demonstrated. Our results therefore show great potential for applications in CMOS image sensors.
2. Fabrication of red, green and blue filters
A uniform metal film of sufficient thickness will block all the incident light. However, periodic subwavelength structures in a metal film can help to excite SPR and selectively transmit light according to wavelength. The peak position,
λmax, of the transmission spectrum at normal incidence can be approximated by
where
a is the period of the array,
εm and
εd are the dielectric constants of the metal and the dielectric material in contact with the metal respectively, and
i and
j are the scattering orders of the array [
7
H. F. Ghaemi, T. Thio, D. E. Grupp, T. W. Ebbesen, and H. J. Lezec, “Surface plasmons enhance optical transmission through subwavelength holes,” Phys. Rev. B
58(11), 6779–6782 (1998). [CrossRef]
,
11
C. Genet and T. W. Ebbesen, “Light in tiny holes,” Nature
445(7123), 39–46 (2007). [CrossRef]
[PubMed]
]. As shown in
Eq. (1) and
(2), the period determines the transmission peak positions of SPRs for a given material configuration. Furthermore, the wavelength interval between the first two SPR peaks in a triangular array is larger than that for a square array of a same period.
The procedure for device fabrication is as follows. A 150 nm aluminum film was evaporated on to a clean microscope glass slide. ZEP520A electron beam resist was spin-coated on to the sample and exposed using a Vistec VB6 UHR EWF electron beam lithography tool. After development in o-xylene, the sample was etched using SiCl
4 in a Plasmalab System 100.
Figure 1(a)
shows a scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of patterned aluminum film on a glass substrate after removing the residual resist. Vertical and smooth sidewalls can be seen from the inset SEM image for which the sample was tilted at 30°. After dry etch and removal of the resist, a SiO
2 layer, of varying thickness, was deposited on top of the patterned aluminum film by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition.
Fig. 1 A SEM image of etched holes in a triangular array with a = 430 nm in an Al film on glass. The inset is a SEM image for a sample tilted at 30°.
Spectral measurement was carried out on a microspectrometer TFProbe MSP300 that can sample the signal from a minimum area of 10 μm × 10 μm. Three primary color filters were written on to the same sample to ensured consistent measurement of the different structures. Due to the symmetrical properties of the hole array and the holes, the transmittance should not show any difference for illumination at different polarization angles. An unpolarized light beam from a halogen lamp was launched normally on to the back-side of the sample.
Figure 2
shows three graphs, one for each of the hole array designs. Each hole array has a pass-band in the red (
Fig. 2 (a)), green (
Fig. 2(b)) or blue (
Fig. 2(c)) part of the visible spectrum. In each graph, three sets of data are shown for different coating layers on the aluminum hole arrays. These are for devices with: no coating; a 100 nm layer of SiO
2; and a 200 nm layer of SiO
2. As can be clearly seen from the data in
Fig. 2, the addition of increasing amount of SiO
2 has a progressive effect o each of the three filters. In all cases the peak wavelength grows slightly longer as SiO
2 is added, and the peak transmission coefficient increases. In
Fig. 2(a), the spectrum of the red filter without a SiO
2 cap layer shows two peaks of almost equal magnitude. With the addition of the 200 nm SiO
2 layer, the transmittance of the long wavelength peak, λ
L, significantly increased but that of the short wavelength peak, λ
S, decreased. The effect of this improvement was clearly visible to the naked eye. The transmitted light through the blue and green color filters also had an obvious enhancement of the brightness after deposition of 200 nm of SiO
2. All the filters that had a 200 nm SiO
2 cap layer demonstrated a peak transmission above 30%. The full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of each filter is approximately 100 nm, therefore ensuring low color cross-talk. The transmitted light images for the three primary color filters with a 200 nm SiO
2 cap layer are shown in the insets of
Fig. 2(a)-(c). These images were captured by a CCD array integrated on the microspectrometer. Each color image consists of hole arrays that was 50 μm × 50 μm. A letter ‘G’ consisting of holes with
a = 330 nm was fabricated as shown in
Fig. 2(d), where the period number of hole array is as small as three. The clear green letter ‘G’ appeared under the white light illumination as shown in the inset. Unlike the structures in earlier work, there is no dimple around the etched holes in our structure [
11
C. Genet and T. W. Ebbesen, “Light in tiny holes,” Nature
445(7123), 39–46 (2007). [CrossRef]
[PubMed]
]. This means that the pixel size could be as small as 1 μm on a high resolution image sensor.
Fig. 2 (a)-(c) Measured transmission spectra of three primary color filters. (a) a red filter hole array with a = 430 nm, hole diameter d = 230 nm (b) a green filter hole array with a = 330 nm, d = 180 nm, (c) a blue filter hole array with a = 250 nm, d = 140 nm. Devices were measured with no SiO2 cap layer, with a 100 nm SiO2 cap layer and with a 200 nm SiO2 cap layer. The transmitted light image for a square patch consisting of each hole array with a 200 nm SiO2 cap layer is shown in the inset of each graph. (d) A SEM image of holes composing the letter ‘G’ with a = 330 nm. The transmitted light image of the structure with a 200 nm SiO2 cap layer is shown in the inset.
3. Device simulation
Commercial software, Lumerical FDTD Solutions [
12], was used to numerically investigate the color filters and identify the transmission peaks in the measured spectra. A 3D model including a semi-infinite glass substrate and a semi-infinite air superstrate in the
z-direction was used, with a triangular-lattice hole array formed in the
xy plane as shown in
Fig. 3
. The repeating pattern defined by rectangle ABCD is the simulation window on the
xy plane, where points A and C are at the center of two holes, and B and D are in the middle of the space between two neighboring holes. A uniform cell with space step Δ
x = Δ
y = Δ
z = 2 nm was used in the range −0.05 μm <
z < 0.2 μm (including the metal slab). A nonuniform cell was used outside this range. Perfectly matched layers were used at the top and bottom boundaries
Fig. 3 Schematic of the simulation model. No SiO2 cap layer is shown.
Symmetrical boundary conditions were used along the AB and AD edges. A broad-band plane wave source was launched normally to the metal film from the glass side. Transmitted light was recorded at a plane 0.8 μm above the top surface of the aluminum slab. The transmission was calculated by normalizing the transmitted light to the incident light.
A systematic simulation was done for hole arrays with
a = 430 nm. Four structures were simulated as shown in
Fig. 4
. In each case, the near-field data shown are for selected resonances of the devices at λ
S and λ
L. From the schematic of each structure, we can see that the near-field material index at the aluminum surface around the hole is not the same for the structures shown in Fgi. 4(a)-(b). The corresponding electric field intensity distributions of λ
S and λ
L are therefore different. The resonance at λ
S yields a strong field distribution around the top of the opening of the hole but the resonance at λ
L has a stronger field distribution around the bottom of the opening. We call the former ‘air mode’ and the latter ‘oxide mode’, which corresponding to the solutions at
εd =
εair and
εd =
εdioxide (
εair and
εdioxide are the dielectric constants of air and silicon dioxide respectively) in
Eq. (2). In both case,
i = 1 and
j = 0, i.e. they are (1,0) resonance. Although the top surface of the aluminum film was not fully covered by air in
Fig. 4(b), the resonance at λ
S was still dominated by the air mode because the electric field was concentrated around the metal corners that were exposed to air. The field intensity distributions for the air mode inside the hole in
Fig. 4(a)-(b) gradually increase from the bottom to the top of the opening for the air mode. The opposite effect is seen for the oxide mode.
Fig. 4 Simulation results of four types of patterned aluminum hole arrays: (a) without a SiO2 cap layer, (b) with a 100 nm SiO2 cap layer, (c) with a 200 nm SiO2 cap layer, (d) a free-standing configuration with the Al film in air. The first column is the simulated transmission spectrum, where the two main transmission peaks are marked as λS and λL. The second column is the corresponding structure schematic in the xz plane, where the red region is SiO2, the blue region is Al and the green region is air. The third and fourth columns are the electric field intensity distributions in the xz plane at λS and λL, respectively. In the intensity images, the intensity increases from the blue region to the red region.
When both sides of the aluminum film were simulated in air, the oxide mode resonance disappeared as shown in
Fig. 4(d). In this case, the resonances at λ
S and λ
L were actually two coupled air modes at either side of the aluminum film, which can be seen from the electric field distributions that have a symmetrical distribution. The resonance at λ
S has a local minimum intensity in the middle of the hole but the resonance at λ
L has a local maximum intensity at the hole center. These were related to odd and even modes of the coupled SPR. When the deposited SiO
2 layer was thicker than 150 nm, the whole aluminum film was covered by oxide. As a result, the air mode disappeared as shown in
Fig. 4(c). The resonances at λ
S and λ
L were two coupled oxide modes. The electric field distributions were not perfectly symmetrical due to the step profile of the top SiO
2 layer. Another transmission peak around 460 nm was observed in
Fig. 4(c), which is the (1,1) resonance according to the resolution of
Eq. (2) with
i = 1 and
j = 1. The localized refractive index variation around the top surface of the aluminum film caused a large wavelength shift in the air mode.
Simulated transmission spectra for three primary color filters in
Fig. 2 are shown in
Fig. 5
. The fill ratios (the ratio of the hole area to the unit cell area) of the holes are 26%, 27% and 28% for the red, green and blue filters, respectively. The simulated spectra of the green and red filters show a double peak characteristic of almost equal magnitude in the main transmission peak. However, the modes at λ
S were not as obvious in the measured spectra, as shown in
Fig. 2, where small “shoulders” at wavelengths shorter than those of the main transmission peaks appeared for both green and red filters. This effect is possibly caused by the smoothed step profile from fabrication. The positions of λ
S and λ
L for both the experimental and simulated data for the devices with a 200 nm SiO
2 cap layer are in approximately the same spectral positions as shown in
Fig. 5(d). The small difference is probably caused by the approximation of the material parameters used for simulation and errors in the estimation of the structure dimensions. A slightly larger difference between simulation and experiment was abserved for the blue filter due to the larger fabrication error for the smaller structure. For all three filters, the experimental transmission peaks have a relatively large red shift compared to the simulation data. This was probably caused by the residual resist left on the samples after dry etch and uncompleted resist removal.
Fig. 5 (a)-(c) Simulated spectra of the structures in
Fig. 2. (a) red filter,
a = 430 nm, hole diameter
d = 230 nm, (b) green filter,
a = 330 nm,
d = 180 nm, and (c) blue filter,
a = 250 nm,
d = 140 nm. (d) comparison of experimental and simulated transmission peak positions.
The transmission efficiency was also strongly affected by the size of the circular hole. Triangular arrays with
a = 330 nm, but different hole sizes were fabricated. Spectra for devices with hole diameter
d = 155 nm to 195 nm are shown in
Fig. 6(a)
. As the hole size increases, the magnitude of the main transmission peak increases from 20% to 46%. There is also a red shift and an increase in the FWHM from 60 nm to 150 nm. The transmission peak at the short wavelength side rose quickly with the increasing hole size. A simulation of a same hole array at
a = 330 nm and
d = 180 nm was done for different aluminum thickness. As shown in
Fig. 6(b), the structure made with a thinner aluminum film has higher transmission but also a much larger bandwidth. The enhanced coupling of SPR when using thinner metal films increases the splitting of the two transmission peaks. In addition, the transmittance of the long wavelength side peak increased but that of the short wavelength side decreased to a very low level at a thickness of 50 nm. In summary, a hole array with larger hole size in a thinner metal film always offers a higher transmission, but with a larger bandwidth.
Fig. 6 (a) Measured transmission spectra for hole arrays with a = 330 nm with different hole diameters d (from 155 nm to 195 nm). (b) Simulated transmission spectra of hole arrays with a = 330 nm and d = 180 nm with different metal thicknesses.