Uncooled infrared detectors toward smaller pixel pitch with newly proposed pixel structure

Since authors have successfully demonstrated uncooled infrared (IR) focal plane array (FPA) with 23.5 um pixel pitch, it has been widely utilized for commercial applications such as thermography, security camera and so on. One of the key issues for uncooled IR detector technology is to shrink the pixel size. The smaller the pixel pitch, the more the IR camera products become compact and the less cost. This paper proposes a new pixel structure with a diaphragm and beams which are placed in different level, to realize an uncooled IRFPA with smaller pixel pitch )≤17 μm). The upper level consists of diaphragm with VOx bolometer and IR absorber layers, while the lower level consists of the two beams, which are designed to place on the adjacent pixels. The test devices of this pixel design with 12 um, 15 um and 17 um pitch have been fabricated on the Si ROIC of QVGA (320 × 240) with 23.5 um pitch. Their performances reveal nearly equal to the IRFPA with 23.5 um pitch. For example, noise equivalent temperature difference (NETD) of 12 μm pixel is 63.1 mK with thermal time constant of 14.5 msec. In addition, this new structure is expected to be more effective for the existing IRFPA with 23.5 um pitch in order to improve the IR responsivity.