Patent 7928529 was granted and assigned to Texas Instruments on April, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A semiconductor device that attenuates light to the circuit element area is provided. The semiconductor device includes light-sensitive element area formed on substrate and a circuit element area formed on the substrate. Additionally, a multilayer wiring area is formed on circuit element area. A Tantalum film (which is generally made of tantalum or a tantalum compound) is formed on the surface of the multilayer wiring area to attenuate incident light on circuit element area.