Microbolometers: a market perspective

Mounier, Éric

doi:10.1117/12.906363

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Figure 11 plots the thermal response and initial capacitance of different detector areas. The inversely proportional relationship to the area for both the thermal response and initial capacitance was expected from (4) and 7respectively. The proposed design achieves a 1.5 fF/ • C capacitance change when sized to be only 100 × 100 µm 2 , and a 6.5 fF/ • C for a 200 × 200 µm 2 design.…”

Section: Characterization and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

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Dual-Level Capacitive Micromachined Uncooled Thermal Detector

Tawfik

Allidina²,

Nabki

et al. 2019

Sensors

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This paper presents a novel dual-level capacitive microcantilever-based thermal detector that is implemented in the commercial surface micromachined PolyMUMPs technology. The proposed design is implemented side-by-side with four different single-level designs to enable a design-to-design performance comparison. The dual-level design exhibits a rate of capacitance change per degree Celsius that is over three times higher than that of the single-level designs and has a base capacitance that is more than twice as large. These improvements are achieved because the dual-level architecture allows a 100% electrode-to-detector area, while single-level designs are shown to suffer from an inherent trade-off between sensitivity and base capacitance. In single-level designs, either the number of the bimorph beams or the capacitance electrode can be increased for a given sensor area. The former is needed for a longer effective length of the bimorph for higher thermomechanical sensitivity (i.e., larger tilting angels per degree Celsius), while the latter is desired to relax the read-out integrated-circuits requirements. This thermomechanical response-to-initial capacitance trade-off is mitigated by the dual-level design, which dedicates one structural layer to serve as the upper electrode of the detector, while the other layer contains as many bimorph beams as desired, independently of the former’s area.

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Section: Characterization and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…Although microbolometers have lower cost than photon detectors, they are still considered to be too expensive for medium, low, and ultra-low-end civilian applications such as industrial maintenance, automotive, and portable devices. This limits the expansion into these potentially very large markets [4,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dual-Level Capacitive Micromachined Uncooled Thermal Detector

Tawfik

Allidina²,

Nabki

et al. 2019

Sensors

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“…The typical commercially available IR cameras cost more than $25,000 or more depending on specific system features [9] [10]. These price-points have remained consistently high as periodic market sampling shows.…”

Section: Co-alignment: Innovations On Key Componentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategic options towards an affordable high-performance infrared camera

et al. 2016

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The promise of infrared (IR) imaging attaining low-cost akin to CMOS sensors success has been hampered by the inability to achieve cost advantages that are necessary for crossover from military and industrial applications into the consumer and mass-scale commercial realm despite well documented advantages. Banpil Photonics is developing affordable IR cameras by adopting new strategies to speed-up the decline of the IR camera cost curve. We present a new short-wave IR (SWIR) camera; 640x512 pixel InGaAs uncooled system that is high sensitivity low noise (<50e-), high dynamic range (100 dB), high-frame rates (> 500 frames per second (FPS)) at full resolution, and low power consumption (< 1 W) in a compact system. This camera paves the way towards mass market adoption by not only demonstrating highperformance IR imaging capability value add demanded by military and industrial application, but also illuminates a path towards justifiable price points essential for consumer facing application industries such as automotive, medical, and security imaging adoption. Among the strategic options presented include new sensor manufacturing technologies that scale favorably towards automation, multi-focal plane array compatible readout electronics, and dense or ultra-small pixel pitch devices.

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“…Usage of single FPA having broadband detection capability can make the device and system application small, light and reduce the power consumption. Doing so can also help to reduce the number of different components, and thus help to decrease the total manufacturing cost of the imaging system, which can in turn enable a wider range of applications [9,10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of high performance SWIR InGaAs focal plane array

Nagi

Bregman

Mizuno

et al. 2015

Image Sensing Technologies: Materials, Devices, Systems, and Applications II

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Banpil Photonics has developed a novel InGaAs based photodetector array for Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR) imaging, for the most demanding security, defense, and machine vision applications. These applications require low noise from both the detector and the readout integrated circuit arrays. In order to achieve high sensitivity, it is crucial to minimize the dark current generated by the photodiode array. This enables the sensor to function in extremely low light situations, which enables it to successfully exploit the benefits of the SWIR band. In addition to minimal dark current generation, it is essential to develop photodiode arrays with higher operating temperatures. This is critical for reducing the power consumption of the device, as less energy is spent in cooling down the focal plane array (in order to reduce the dark current). We at Banpil Photonics are designing, simulating, fabricating and testing SWIR InGaAs arrays, and have achieved low dark current density at room temperature. This paper describes Banpil's development of the photodetector array. We also highlight the fabrication technique used to reduce the amount of dark current generated by the photodiode array, in particular the surface leakage current. This technique involves the deposition of strongly negatively doped semiconductor material in the area between the pixels. This process reduces the number of dangling bonds present on the edges of each pixel, which prevents electrons from being swept across the surface of the pixels. This in turn drastically reduces the amount of surface leakage current at each pixel, which is a major contributor towards the total dark current. We present the optical and electrical characterization data, as well as the analysis that illustrates the dark current mechanisms. Also highlighted are the challenges and potential opportunities for further reduction of dark current, while maintaining other parameters of the photodiode array, such as size, weight, temperature of peak performance (lowest dark current), and power consumption.

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Microbolometers: a market perspective

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Dual-Level Capacitive Micromachined Uncooled Thermal Detector

Dual-Level Capacitive Micromachined Uncooled Thermal Detector

Strategic options towards an affordable high-performance infrared camera

Development of high performance SWIR InGaAs focal plane array

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