MEMS-Based Wavelength-Selective Bolometers

Abstract

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a compact design for membrane-supported wavelength-selective infrared (IR) bolometers. The proposed bolometer device is composed of wavelength-selective absorbers functioning as the efficient spectroscopic IR light-to-heat transducers that make the amorphous silicon (a-Si) bolometers respond at the desired resonance wavelengths. The proposed devices with specific resonances are first numerically simulated to obtain the optimal geometrical parameters and then experimentally realized. The fabricated devices exhibit a wide resonance tunability in the mid-wavelength IR atmospheric window by changing the size of the resonator of the devices. The measured spectral response of the fabricated device wholly follows the pre-designed resonance, which obviously evidences that the concept of the proposed wavelength-selective IR bolometers is realizable. The results obtained in this work provide a new solution for on-chip MEMS-based wavelength-selective a-Si bolometers for practical applications in IR spectroscopic devices.

A Review on Graphene-Based Light Emitting Functional Devices

“…Besides, most of the existing incandescent infrared sources suffer from several shortcomings, such as limited wavelength range, lifetime, and sensitivity to flammable gasses. In addition, as an alternative infrared source, the microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based silicon thermal emitters depict relatively slow response (~1 kHz maximum modulation frequency) because of their slow responsivity characteristics with few mV/W [ 74 ]. Besides, the fundamental limitation of semiconductor-based light-emitting diode (LED) has the advantage of high modulation speed at IR (infrared) ranges [ 75 ].…”

Current-Mode Self-Amplified CMOS Sensor Intended for 2D Temperature Microgradients Measurement and Imaging

“…Many contributions to temperature sensors and temperature imagers are available in the corresponding technical literature. Regarding the uncooled thermal image sensors, some papers present contributions considering area reduction, enhancement of responsivity and sensitivity, signal readout process, image processing, power consumption and noise equivalent temperature difference (NETD) [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ]. It is desirable to have these sensors integrated into standard CMOS technology to reduce the costs and to facilitate embedding the interface and the readout electronic circuitry [ 1 , 2 , 4 , 5 , 7 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 17 , 18 ].…”

“…Most temperature sensors are available for MEMS -based microscale measurements, and not all of them have the desired integration with the CMOS technology, to feature essential functions such as amplification and signal conditioning [ 11 , 15 , 17 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 ]. Furthermore, there have been developments in the nanoscale thermal sensing [ 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ].…”

“…Some of these nanoscale sensors are used in contact with the measured sample [ 27 , 28 , 31 , 33 , 34 , 36 , 37 , 38 ]. Interestingly, even though they have been developed to sense temperature, they can also yield images, either through direct contact with the measured sample [ 33 ] or at a distance [ 11 , 15 , 17 , 33 , 35 ].…”

Editorial for the Special Issue “Infrared Nanophotonics: Materials, Devices and Applications”

“…Dao et al have demonstrated a compact design for membrane-supported, wavelength-selective infrared (IR) bolometers [ 1 ]. The fabricated devices exhibit a wide resonance tunability in the mid-wavelength IR atmospheric window by changing the size of the resonator of the devices, evidencing that the concept of the proposed wavelength-selective IR bolometers is realizable.…”