Amorphous Silicon Bolometer for Fire/Rescue

摘要

Thermal imaging sensors have completely changed the way the world views fire and rescue applications. Recently, in the uncooled infrared camera and microbolometer detector areas, major strides have been made in manufacturing personal fire and rescue sensors. A family of new amorphous silicon microbolometers are being produced utilizing low cost, low weight, ultra low power, small size, high volume vacuum packaged silicon wafer-level focal plane array technologies. These bolometers contain no choppers or thermoelectric coolers, require no manual calibration and use readily available commercial off-the-shelf components. Manufacturing and packaging discoveries have allowed infrared sensitive silicon arrays to be produced with the same methods that have driven the rapidly advancing digital wireless telecommunications industries. Fire and rescue professionals are now able to conduct minimum time thermal imaging penetration, surveillance, detection, recognition, rescue and egress while maintaining situalional awareness in a manner consistent with the modern technological applications. The purpose of this paper is to describe an uncooled micro bolometer infrared camera approach for meeting fire/rescue wants, needs and requirements, with application of recent technology advancements. This paper also details advances in bolometric focal plane arrays, optical and circuit card technologies, while providing a glimpse into the future of micro sensor growth. Technical barriers are addressed in light of constraints and lessons learned around this technology.