Low-Cost Microbolometer Type Infrared Detectors
Le Yu, Yaozu Guo, Haoyu Zhu, Mingcheng Luo, Ping Han, Xiaoli Ji
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.