We report a Fabry–Perot interferometer (FPI)-based infrared (IR) spectrometer designed for long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) region. To fabricate the proposed FPI-based LWIR spectrometer, we developed a novel poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) patterning technique by combining photolithography and dry etching. The proposed PDMS patterning technique has advantages such as clear shape of PDMS pattern and no damage to the silicon (Si) substrate. Especially, the final height of PDMS pattern is easily adjusted by controlling the thickness of spin-coated photoresist. The proposed FPI-based IR spectrometer, which is composed of upper and lower substrate were fabricated separately utilizing newly proposed PDMS patterning technique. Experimental results show that maximum transmittance of filtered wavelength component by the proposed FPI-based IR spectrometer lies at the wavelength of 16 µm. The proposed IR spectrometer can detect a specific wavelength at LWIR region by controlling the air etalon gap that is adjusted by utilizing the proposed PDMS patterning technique.

An infrared (IR) bolometer measures the change of resistance by absorbing incident IR radiation and generates a signal as a function of the radiation intensity. Since a bolometer requires temperature stabilization and light filtering except for the infrared rays, it is essential for the device to be packaged meeting conditions that above mentioned. Minimization of heat loss is needed in order to stabilize temperature of bolometer. Heat loss by conduction or convection requires a medium, so the heat loss will be minimized if the medium is a vacuum. Therefore, vacuum packaging for bolometer is necessary. Another important element in bolometer packaging is germanium (Ge) window, which transmits IR radiation to heat the bolometer. To ensure a complete transmittance of IR light, anti-reflection (AR) coatings are deposited on both sides of the window. Although the transmittance of Ge window is high for IR rays, it is difficult to use frequently in low-price IR bolometer because of its high price. In this paper, we fabricated IR window by utilizing silicon (Si) substrate instead of Ge in order to reduce the cost of bolometer packaging. To enhance the IR transmittance through Si substrate, it is textured using Reactive Ion Etching (RIE). The texturing process of Si substrate is performed along with the change of experimental conditions such as gas ratio, pressure, etching time and RF power. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License(http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/bync/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.