Canon Patent Application: Stacked sensor and method of manufacturing

Canon has applied for a patent for a design of a stacked sensor that has bonding pads appearing at each pixel, and not around the edges. The bonding pads are used to communicate the signals from the one substrate of the stacked sensor to the other.  Canon wants to make them as short as possible because it leads to better performance, and also, less noise.

By the looks of the above diagram, there are both pads on the outside of the sensor, and much smaller pads at each pixel.  On the diagram, 311 is the pixel pads, and 313 is the larger connection to the outside of the sensor.

It should be noted, that even though Canon hasn't mentioned much about it in this application, as with most stacked sensor designs, the sensor is backside illuminated.

I think the method of manufacturing patents are important.  They still don't necessarily mean that Canon is coming out with stacked sensors on for instance the 1DX Mark III, however, Canon has been putting a lot of effort into stacked sensors; it's very highly likely that we'll see the fruits of all this effort.

Japan Patent Application 2019-195082