Enhanced characteristics of an uncooled microbolometer using vanadium-tungsten oxide as a thermometric material

摘要

To produce a highly sensitive uncooled microbolometer, the development of a high-performance thermometric material is essential. In this work, amorphous vanadium-tungsten oxide was developed as a thermometric material at a low temperature of 300℃, and the microbolometer, coupled with the material, was designed and fabricated using surface micromachining technology. The vanadium-tungsten oxide showed good properties for application to the microbolometer, such as a high-temperature coefficient of resistance of over -4.0 % /K and good compatibility with the surface micromachining and integrated circuit fabrication process due to its low fabrication temperature. As a result, the uncooled microbolometer could be fabricated with high detectivity over 1.0 x 10~9 cm Hz~(1/2)/W at a bias current of 7.5 μA and a chopper frequency of 10-20 Hz.