Latest amorphous silicon microbolometer developments at LETI-LIR

摘要

The Laboratoire Infrarouge (LIR) of the Electronics and Information Technology Laboratory (LETI) has been involvedin the development of Uncooled IR technology since 1986. Along these years, more and more technology improvementshave been done at LETI and ULIS for large-scale production and broad commercialisation of advanced devices. With ULIS support, LETI is still pushing forward the technology, taking advantage of the well-established user-friendlyproperties of amorphous silicon. These developments are primarily driven by performance enhancement and costreduction. In this outlook, the paper will first report on the recent improvements we have brought to microbolometer FPAs with35 p.m pixels, resulting in 11 mK NETD measurements. At the same time, 25 pm pixels have been demonstrated for highperformance achievement. LETI is also developing a 1024 x 720, 17 p.m pitch IRFPA that aims very challenging NETD< 40 mK; the paper will give the main concerns we have focused on to achieve this result. Finally, the LETI is preparingthe next generation of very low cost Uncooled IRFPA, thanks to passing on all the microbolometer technologydevelopments to the LETI 8 inches wafer facility.