Abstract
The complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) microbolometer technology provides a low-cost approach for the long-wave infrared (LWIR) imaging applications. The fabrication of the CMOS-compatible microbolometer infrared focal plane arrays (IRFPAs) is based on the combination of the standard CMOS process and simple post-CMOS micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) process. With the technological development, the performance of the commercialized CMOS-compatible microbolometers shows only a small gap with that of the mainstream ones. This paper reviews the basics and recent advances of the CMOS-compatible microbolometer IRFPAs in the aspects of the pixel structure, the read-out integrated circuit (ROIC), the focal plane array, and the vacuum packaging.
Highlights
Infrared (IR) detectors are devices that measure the incident IR radiation by turning it into other easy-to-measure physical phenomenon
This technology aims to eliminate the requirement of special process and simplify the post-complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) process in order to achieve the ultra-low-cost microbolometer infrared focal plane arrays (IRFPAs)
We focus on the CMOS-compatible microbolometer IR detectors, that is, the low-cost microbolometer type IR detectors for imaging purpose fabricated via CMOS process
Summary
Infrared (IR) detectors are devices that measure the incident IR radiation by turning it into other easy-to-measure physical phenomenon. The layer structures of the absorber and the thermal sensor are formed with CMOS process, and post-CMOS micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) process are used to form suspended microbridge structures in purpose of thermal isolation This technology aims to eliminate the requirement of special process and simplify the post-CMOS MEMS process in order to achieve the ultra-low-cost microbolometer IRFPAs. the most common thermistor materials like vanadium oxide (VOx) [60,61,62] and silicon derivatives (a-Si, a-SiGe, a-GexSi1−xOy, etc.,) [63,64,65], which have appropriate electrical properties, are not compatible with the CMOS process. The basics and the fabrication processes of such low-cost microbolometer IR detectors will be introduced, while the development trends and the technological advances are discussed
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