Thin film ferroelectrics: breakthrough

Now that commercial infrared is a well-established business with several serious competitors, the pressures for a competitive edge have increased dramatically. Hybrid barium strontium titanate (BST) ferroelectric detectors still provide the basis for the majority of systems being produced today, and tens of thousands of systems have been fielded. The system simplicity of these AC-coupled systems is not matchable by any other current technology, but the complexity of the detector fabrication process limits its potential for further substantial cost and performance improvements. DC-coupled VOx bolometers, currently the most popular technology among manufacturers, offer better sensitivity at somewhat greater cost. Although this technology has been heralded as the technology of the future, it is encumbered by a more complicated system architecture and by spatial noise, which limits the ability to take advantage of its greater sensitivity. Thin-film ferroelectric (TFFE) detectors promise to remove the cost and performance barriers that lie ahead of BST technology, while maintaining the low system cost and low spatial noise characteristic of AC-coupled systems. Until recently the promise has been elusive, but now real-world performance of the best of TFFE systems is competitive with the best of any other technology.