Pyroelectric aluminum nitride micro electromechanical systems infrared sensor with wavelength-selective infrared absorber

Abstract

This paper describes a micro electromechanical systems type wavelength-selective pyroelectric sensor, with highly c-axis oriented Aluminum nitride film as the pyroelectric material. Wavelength-selective infrared absorption is realized via periodic structures of holes patterned into the top metal electrode that also collects pyroelectric charge signal. The periodic hole array results in optical absorption resonances whose wavelength is determined by the hole pitch, demonstrated experimentally using a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer and numerically calculated using the finite difference time domain method. A significant difference in infrared absorption between patterned and unpatterned detectors is demonstrated through optical experiments comparing the pyroelectric responses.

Ultrawide‐Bandgap Semiconductors: Research Opportunities and Challenges

“…These sensors might be discrete or might be integrated with other sensors for multi-component orthogonal sensing in environments that change quickly and contain a number of chemical or biological species. [306,307] A second aspect of this technology is electronics [308] -wireless data communication and power sources [306,[309][310][311][312][313][314][315] that can be co-located with the sensors.…”

Electric and pyroelectric properties of AlN thin films deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering on Si substrate

“…temperature variation. Another shortcoming of the previous studies was that the frequency of the temperature variation was below 10 Hz, suggesting a slow response of the AlN capacitor as pyroelectric detector [15,[18][19][20].…”

Mechanical, Corrosion and Biological Properties of Room-Temperature Sputtered Aluminum Nitride Films with Dissimilar Nanostructure

“…For instance, piezoelectric AlN thin films were successfully integrated in pressure sensors capable to operate in high temperature or in harsh environments conditions (e.g., combustion pressure sensors for cars) [ 8 ] or for measuring pressure fluctuations in rotating machinery such as compressors and turbines [ 9 ]. Furthermore, AlN-based vibration sensors for the monitoring of industrial machines [ 10 ] or for ultra-high temperatures applications [ 11 ], ultra-violet (UV) sensors suitable for operating in high temperature/harsh environment conditions [ 12 ], as well as various pyroelectric sensors [ 13 , 14 , 15 ], have been also investigated. Thin film piezoelectric AlN (on Si) gravimetric resonant [ 16 ] as well as surface acoustic wave (SAW) [ 17 ] based gas sensors, were also demonstrated.…”