Development of double-cantilever infrared detectors.

摘要

Detection and imaging of infrared (IR) radiation are of great importance to a variety of military and civilian applications. Recent advances in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have led to the development of uncooled cantilever IR focal plane arrays (FPAs), which function based on the bending of bimaterial cantilevers upon the absorption of IR energy. In this dissertation, capacitive-based double-cantilever IR FPAs, which have a potential of reaching a noise-equivalent temperature difference (NETD) approaching the theoretical limit, i.e., 10 mK, are developed.; Each pixel in the proposed double-cantilever IR FPAs consists of two facing bimaterial cantilevers: one bends upward and the other downward upon IR radiation, resulting in an extremely high sensitivity of the device. It is predicted that the NETD of the double-cantilever IR FPAs is about 60% of the current single-cantilever IR FPAs, which is a significant improvement of device performance. A surface micromachining module with polyimide as a sacrificial material is developed for the fabrication of both simplified single- and double-cantilever FPAs. It is found the as-fabricated FPAs are curved because of the imbalanced residual stresses (strains) in thin films developed in the fabrication processes. In this dissertation, therefore, the general relationship between the residual strain and the resultant elastic bending deformation is modeled. A thorough investigation of residual stresses in cantilever IR materials and structures is then conducted using the theory developed in this dissertation. Furthermore, thermal-cycling experiments reveal that the residual stresses in IR materials, i.e., plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposited (PECVD) SiNx and electron beam (Ebeam) AI, can be significantly modified by thermal annealing. Therefore, an engineering approach to flattening IR FPAs is developed by using rapid thermal annealing (RTA). Finally, this dissertation demonstrates the thermal detection of cantilever IR FPAs.; The outcome of this dissertation first provides a comprehensive understanding for the development of capacitive-based double-cantilever IR detectors. Second, the microfabrication technique developed in this dissertation can be readily used for the fabrication of a wide variety of complex free-standing multilayer structures. Third, the theoretical modeling and experimental methodologies for residual stress study and curvature control can be applied to broad multilayer cantilevers and film-substrate systems.