Abstract: Uncooled Thermal Imaging (TI) in the UK involves large arrays of ferroelectric bolometer elements, at a pitch of from 100 micrometer down to 40 micrometer. A Hybrid Array Technology, exploiting the pyroelectric property of ferroelectric ceramic materials for the bolometer elements, has produced a range of successful solder bump bonded 2-D arrays. However, in innovative technologies under research, direct deposition of the ferroelectric material as a thin film onto suitable thermal microstructures on the silicon readout IC will provide substantial reductions in costs as well as improved performance. A route has been defined for this Integrated Array Technology, leading to performance enhancements by a factor of three over the Hybrids. In achieving the performance, the optimized ferroelectric signal readout, signal conditioning and processing architectures perfected for the Hybrid Arrays will be retained. Microscan mechanisms, readily incorporated in the IR chopped format used with ferroelectric imaging, have been demonstrated for the Hybrids, and will be even more closely matched to the improved thermal diffusion MTF of the Integrated devices. The ferroelectric capacitative detector filters the high frequencies, limiting noise bandwidths for very large arrays, and with microscan technology added, the ferroelectric arrays retain their potential to provide high quality IR imaging at very large equivalent array sizes. !16
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