Abstract
There is an ongoing effort to fabricate miniature, low-cost, and sensitive thermal sensors for domestic and industrial uses. This paper presents a miniature thermal sensor (dubbed TMOS) that is fabricated in advanced CMOS FABs, where the micromachined CMOS-SOI transistor, implemented with a 130-nm technology node, acts as a sensing element. This study puts emphasis on the study of electromagnetic absorption via the vacuum-packaged TMOS and how to optimize it. The regular CMOS transistor is transformed to a high-performance sensor by the micro- or nano-machining process that releases it from the silicon substrate by wafer-level processing and vacuum packaging. Since the TMOS is processed in a CMOS-SOI FAB and is comprised of multiple thin layers that follow strict FAB design rules, the absorbed electromagnetic radiation cannot be modeled accurately and a simulation tool is required. This paper presents modeling and simulations based on the LUMERICAL software package of the vacuum-packaged TMOS. A very high absorption coefficient may be achieved by understanding the physics, as well as the role of each layer.
Highlights
There has been a great deal of interest in low-cost uncooled IR sensors in recent years, which may bolster a wide range of new applications, such as consumer electronics, smart homes, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and mobile applications
Since the TMOS may be operated at a subthreshold level, consuming very low power, it may be powered by a battery, enabling a wide range of applications related to mobile phones, smart homes, security, and IoT
This paper presents modeling and simulations based on the LUMERICAL software package [20] for the absorption of IR radiation by a vacuum-packaged TMOS sensor
Summary
There has been a great deal of interest in low-cost uncooled IR sensors in recent years, which may bolster a wide range of new applications, such as consumer electronics, smart homes, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and mobile applications. The silicon technology is available for advanced yet standard CMOS and MEMS FABs [19], offering wafer-level processing and packaging (WLP) with integrated optical windows and filters above the vacuum. Since the TMOS may be operated at a subthreshold level, consuming very low power, it may be powered by a battery, enabling a wide range of applications related to mobile phones, smart homes, security, and IoT This low power feature of the TMOS is a great advantage in comparison to the passive bolometers for example, which currently dominate the IR imaging market. This paper presents modeling and simulations based on the LUMERICAL software package [20] for the absorption of IR radiation by a vacuum-packaged TMOS sensor. Since the TMOS is processed in a CMOS-SOI FAB and is comprised of multiple thin layers, the absorbed electromagnetic radiation cannot be modeled accurately and a simulation tool is required. The goal of this study is to give physical insight regarding the layers and mechanisms that play primary roles in TMOS electromagnetic absorption, as well as to assist in the use of LUMERICAL for simulations
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