Spectral performance of a silicon IR microspectrometer

The performance of an optical IR microspectrometer fabricated in silicon using IC-compatible micromachining is presented. The components are distributed over two silicon wafers. One contains an aluminum-based grating and the other an array of poly-silicon thermocouples with readout circuits. The optical path is defined after low-temperature aligned wafer-to-wafer bonding. Design considerations, fabrication and performance are presented. Measurements confirm an IR operating range between 1 and 9 /spl mu/m and a half-power spectral resolution of 0.5 /spl mu/m.