US Patent 7268009 Method for fabricating a CMOS image sensor

A method for fabricating a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor is disclosed. An example method forms a metal pad in a pad area of a substrate having an active area and a pad area defined thereon, forms a protective layer on an entire surface of the substrate including the metal pad and selectively removing the protective layer to open the metal pad, and forms a barrier layer having a predetermined thickness on the entire surface of the substrate including the opened metal pad. Additionally, the exampled method forms red, green, and blue color filter layers on the barrier layer corresponding to the active area, forms a micro-lens over each of the color filter layers, and removes the barrier layer on the pad area.