The fabrication of a bolometer for infrared detection using a boron doped amorphous silicon (a-Si-B:H) thin film is presented for the first time. This thin film (170 nm) was deposited on a silicon nitride membrane sustained by a frame made of micromachined crystalline silicon in order to improve the thermal isolation. Electrical connectivity to the element was achieved by means of aluminum contact pads. The resultant figures of merit, measured at room temperature, were: electrical conductivity of 1.513×10-3 (Ω-cm)-1, thermal coefficient of resistance of 3.4 %K-1, and the device is sensitive to temperature variations as small as 20 mK.

In this work, the fabrication of waveguide and nitride silicon membrane is presented. The measurement configuration chosen to detect the variation produced in the light properties is an Interferometer configuration of the Mach Zehnder Type (MZI), because of its high sensitivity. One of its arms is positioned on a floating silicon nitride membrane that becomes deformed under small pressures on the range of MPa. According to the parameters of the membrane and the waveguide we obtain a maximum deformation of 176 nm that produces a change of phase of 180° between the two waves, producing therein a null interferometer output for the maximum pressure.The analyses of theory suggest that this device will be able to sense a pressure value up to 13.376MPa.