Optomechanical uncooled infrared imaging system: design, microfabrication, and performance

Author

Zhao, Yang ; Mao, Minyao ; Horowitz, Roberto ; Majumdar, Arunava ; Varesi, John ; Norton, Paul ; Kitching, John

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. Eng., California Univ., Berkeley, CA, USA

Volume

11

Issue

2

fYear

2002

fDate

4/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

136

Lastpage

146

Abstract

This paper presents the design, fabrication and performance of an uncooled micro-optomechanical infrared (IR) imaging system consisting of a focal-plane array (FPA) containing bi-material cantilever pixels made of silicon nitride (SiNx) and gold (Au), which serve as infrared absorbers and thermomechanical transducers. Based on wave optics, a visible optical readout system is designed to simultaneously measure the deflections of all the cantilever beams in the FPA and project the visible deflection map onto a visible charge-coupled device (CCD) imager. The IR imaging results suggest that the detection resolution of current design is 3-5 K, whereas noise analysis indicates the current resolution to be around 1 K. The noise analysis also shows that the theoretical noise-equivalent temperature difference (NETD) of the system can be below 3 mK

Keywords

CCD image sensors; focal planes; infrared imaging; micro-optics; microsensors; CCD imager; SiN-Au; beam deflection; focal plane array; infrared absorber; microfabrication; noise equivalent temperature difference; silicon nitride/gold bi-material cantilever pixels; thermomechanical transducer; uncooled micro-optomechanical infrared imaging system; visible optical readout system; wave optics; Gold; Image analysis; Image resolution; Infrared imaging; Optical device fabrication; Optical devices; Optical imaging; Optical noise; Pixel; Silicon;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microelectromechanical Systems, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1057-7157

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/84.993448

Filename

993448