• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2005

We have developed surface micromachined Infrared ray (IR) focal plane array (FPA), in which single $SiO_{2}$ layer works as an IR absorbing plate and $Pb(Zr_{0.3}Ti_{0.7})O_{2}$ thin film served as a thermally sensitive material. There are some advantages of applying $SiO_{2}$ layer as an IR absorbing layer. First of all, the $SiO_{2}$ has good IR absorbance within $8{\sim}12{\mu}m$ spectrum range. Measured value showed about 60% absorbance of incident IR spectrum in the range. $SiO_{2}$ layer has another important merit when applied to the top of Pt/PZT/Pt stack because it works also as a supporting membrane. Consequently, the IR absorbing layer forms one body with membrane structure, which simplifies the whole MEMS process and gives robustness Ito the structure.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.60 no.12
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• pp.2311-2317
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• 2011

In this paper, we study the temperature change of a ${\mu}$-bolometer focal plane array with a capacitive transimpedance amplifier bias cancellation circuit. Thermal analysis is essential to understand the performance of a ${\mu}$-bolometer focal plane array, and to improve the temperature stability of a focal plane array characteristics. In this study, the thermal analyses of a ${\mu}$-bolometer and its two reference detectors are carried out as a function of time. The analyses are done with the $30{\mu}m$ pitch $320{\times}240$ focal plane array operating of 60 Hz frame rate and having a columnwise readout. From the results, the temperature increase of a ${\mu}$-bolometer in FPA by an incident IR is estimated as $0.689^{\circ}C$, while the temperature increase by a pulsed bias as $7.1^{\circ}C$, which is about 10 times larger than by IR. The temperature increase of a reference detector by a train of bias pulses may be increased much higher than that of an active ${\mu}$-bolometer. The suppression of temperature increase in a reference bolometer can be done by increasing the thermal conductivity of the reference bolometer, in which the selection of thermal conductivity also determines the range of CTIA output voltage.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.130-136
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• 2010

The microbolometer array sensor with fine pitch pixel array has been implemented to the released amorphous silicon layer supported by two contact pads. For the design of focal plane mirror with geometrical flatness, the simple beam test structures were fabricated and characterized. As the beam length decreased, the effect of beam width on the bending was minimized, Mirror deformation of focal plane in a real pixel showed downward curvature by residual stress of a-Si and Ti layer. The mirror tilting was caused by the mis-align effect of contact pad and confirmed by FEA simulation results. The properties of bolometer have been measured as such that the NETD 145 mK, the TCR -2 %/K, and thermal time constant 1.99 ms.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.12-15
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• 2018

InSb (III-V compound semiconductor) is used for photodiode to detect the mid-wavelength infrared radiation. Generally the quantum efficiency of InSb IR FPAs(Focal Plane Arrays) is known to be determined by thickness of InSb and transmittance of anti-reflection coating layer. In this study, we confirmed that the C-V characteristics of detector array affects the quantum efficiency of the InSb IR FPAs. We fabricated the IR FPAs with various $V_{fb}$(flat band voltage) values and confirmed the tendency between the $V_{fb}$ value and quantum efficiency of the IR FPAs.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.301-306
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• 2009

This paper describes the design and fabrication of 16$\times$16 microbolometer infrared focal plane arrays based on iMEMS technology. Amorphous silicon was used for infrared-sensitive material, and it showed the resistance of 18 Mohm and the temperature coefficient of resistivity of -2.4 %. The fabricated sensors exhibited responsivity of 78 kV/W and thermal time constant of 8.0 msec at a bias voltage of 0.5 V. The array performances had satisfactory uniformity less than 5 % within one-sigma. Also, 1/f noise of pixel was measured and the noise factor of $6\times10^{-11}$ was extracted. Finally, we obtained detectivity of $1.27\times10^9cmHz^{0.5}/W$ and noise equivalent temperature difference of 200 mK at a frame rate of 30 Hz.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.366-370
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• 2022

A 12 ㎛ pixel-sized 360 × 240 microbolometer focal plane array (MBFPA) was fabricated using a complementary metaloxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible process. To release the MBFPA membrane, an amorphous carbon layer (ACL) processed at a low temperature (<400 ℃) was deposited as a sacrificial layer. The thermal time constant of the MBFPA was improved by using serpentine legs and controlling the thickness of the SiNx layers at 110, 130, and 150 nm on the membrane, with response times of 6.13, 6.28, and 7.48 msec, respectively. Boron-doped amorphous Si (a-Si), which exhibits a high-temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) and CMOS compatibility, was deposited on top of the membrane as an IR absorption layer to provide heat energy transformation. The structural stability of the thin SiNx membrane and serpentine legs was observed using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The fabrication yield was evaluated by measuring the resistance of a representative pixel in the array, which was in the range of 0.8-1.2 Mohm (as designed). The yields for SiNx thicknesses of SiNx at 110, 130, and 150 nm were 75, 86, and 86%, respectively.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.35-44
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• 2012

Most recent infrared (IR) sensors have a focal-plane array (FPA) structure. Spatial non-uniformity of a FPA structure, however, introduces unwanted fixed pattern noise (FPN) to images. This non-uniformity correction (NUC) of a FPA can be categorized into target-based and scene-based approaches. In a target-based approach, FPN can be separated by using a uniform target such as a black body. Since the detector response randomly drifts along the time axis, however, several scene-based algorithms on the basis of a video sequence have been proposed. Among those algorithms, the state-of-the-art one based on Kalman filter uses one-directional warping for motion compensation and only compensates for offset non-uniformity of IR camera detectors. The system model using one-directional warping cannot correct the boundary region where a new scene is being introduced in the next video frame. Furthermore, offset-only correction approaches may not completely remove the FPN in images if it is considerably affected by gain non-uniformity. Therefore, for FPN reduction in IR videos, we propose a joint correction algorithm of gain and offset based on bi-directional warping. Experiment results using simulated and real IR videos show that the proposed scheme can provide better performance compared with the state-of-the art in FPN reduction.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.146-158
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• 2022

The detector of a focal-plane-array mid-wave infrared (MWIR) camera has different response characteristics for each detector pixel, resulting in nonuniformity between detector pixels. In addition, image nonuniformity occurs due to heat generation inside the camera during operation. To solve this problem, in the process of camera manufacturing it is common to use a gain-and-offset table generated from a blackbody to correct the difference between detector pixels. One method of correcting nonuniformity due to internal heat generation during the operation of the camera generates a new offset value based on input frame images. This paper proposes a technique for dividing an input image into block image patches and generating offset values using only homogeneous patches, to correct the nonuniformity that occurs during camera operation. The proposed technique may not only generate a nonuniformity-correction offset that can prevent motion marks due to camera-gaze movement of the acquired image, but may also improve nonuniformity-correction performance with a small number of input images. Experimental results show that distortion such as flow marks does not occur, and good correction performance can be confirmed even with half the number of input images or fewer, compared to the traditional method.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.162-169
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• 2019

This paper describes a thermal image processing algorithm for uncooled type TEC-less IR detector which is applicable to fire control system of small arms. We implemented a real-time gain and offset compensation algorithm based on polynomial approximation from the raw dataset which is acquired by two reference temperature of blackbody from various FPA(Focal Plane Array) temperature. Through the experiment, we analyzed the output characteristics of detector's raw-data and compared IR image quality to traditional non-uniformity correction method. It shows that the proposed method works well in all FPA temperature range with low residual non-uniformity.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.98-102
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• 2012

These days, Uncooled IR Systems are more popular in the area of defense and aerospace than before. Uncooled IR Systems are widely used as core technology for making unmanned systems and detecting enemy objects during the day and night in the distance. Recently, researches on TEC-less IRFPA have been increased to minimize the power consumption and to make a smaller system than before. For this, it needs to find adequate NUC(Non-Uniformity Correction) coefficients as FPA(Focal Plane Array) temperature changes. In this paper, we propose a new NUC coefficient estimating technique, DCCE-LI(Dynamic Calibration Coefficients Estimation with Linear Interpolation), for TEC-less IRFPA. It is based on a linear interpolation method and it can estimate NUC coefficients in real-time. So, by testing and evaluating it with some IR images, we conclude that the quality of IR images using proposed method is better than applying static coefficients.