First demonstration of 640 x 480 uncooled amorphous silicon IRFPA with 25 μm pixel pitch

An approach for the performance analysis of an uncooled infrared bolometer imager

“…As there is also a radiation flow from the BDSP to the Image Object, the RTC between the Image Object and the BDSP is given by Eq. (8).…”

“…The basic circuit unit for readout is configured with an OPamp integrator and a FET switch, as shown in [12]. Several types of areal bolometer detectors of 640 Â 480 pixels have already been introduced to the market place [8], and these devices are designed to have a readout repetition rate of 30 frames/s. All FET switches in a row are turned on at the same time by a pulse whose on-time is a little less than 1/(30 Â 480) = 69.4 Â 10 À6 s. The system time constant of the bolometer detector itself is much longer than 69.4 ls.…”

Uncooled infrared focal plane arrays

“…One was to move to manufacturing processes that allowed tighter design rules, which is depicted in the upper right of Fig. (fine pattern 2–level pixel ). The other was to develop new pixel structures that ensured high fill factor and low thermal conductance simultaneously.…”

“…Figure shows the trends in pixel reduction. While the pixel pitch of the first microbolometer reported in 1992 was 50 μm , it was reduced to 25 μm by 2002 , 17 μm by 2007 , and 12 μm in 2013 . Today, the most advanced microbolometer IRFPA has a pixel pitch of 10 μm .…”

A low-cost uncooled infrared aluminum microbolometer in a standard CMOS technology

“…Many efforts have been made to improve the performance of the thermistor element using many different materials, such as vanadium oxide, 12,13 titanium and titanium oxide, 6,14 poly SiGe, 15 and amorphous silicon. 16 However, these detectors require more fabrication steps such as deposition and lithography, increasing its cost and limiting its use for commercial applications. In addition, some of these structures cannot be completed with standard CMOS process lines and require dedicated fabrication facilities.…”