Thermal infrared detection using linear arrays of poly SiGe uncooled microbolometers

摘要

The poly-SiGe technology developed at IMEC [1-3] is transferred into production of uncooled infrared microbolometer arrays of both, 14×14 and 200×1 size at its industrial spin-off XenICs. The production line ensures near 100% pixel yield and operability combined with the best uniformity of microbolometer characteristics and their wafer-scale variations. The SiGe technology affords the unique uniformity of resistance, thermal coefficient of resistance, and 1/f noise. The first images of a bar target have been taken with linear SiGe arrays. A NETD of 100 mK at the readout level is obtained on 200×1 arrays of 60×60μm{sup}2 pixels at the reading speed corresponding to 100 frames per second (fps) and recalculated to 25 fps.