Ion beam etching of lithium tantalate and its application for pyroelectric linear arrays

摘要

Ion beam etching (IBE) is of great importance in the manufacturing process of pyroelectric material for linear arrays. Both the responsivity and the spatial resolution of infrared detectors will be increased by thinning down the responsive elements and by preventing the lateral heat conduction by trenches. The local thickness reduction of to about 15 mu m using IBE with only one resist mask is described in this paper. The etching process and the properties of the photomask will be surveyed followed by an investigation of the shape of the thinned area. Special attention is directed to the possibility of covering the etched grooves with thin metal films for conductors. For the experiments, a filamentless radio frequency ion beam source was applied and Ar was used as inert etch gas. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.