• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.533-538
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• 2015

Thermal characterization of individual pixels in microbolometer infrared image sensors is needed for optimal design and improved performance. In this work, we used thermoreflectance microscopy on uncooled microbolometer image sensors to investigate the thermal characteristics of individual pixels. Two types of microbolometer image sensors with a shared-anchor structure were fabricated and thermally characterized at various biases and vacuum levels by measuring the temperature distribution on the surface of the microbolometers. The results show that thermoreflectance microscopy can be a useful thermal characterization tool for microbolometer image sensors.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.391-392
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• 2008

A surface micromachined uncooled microbolometer based on the amorphous silicon was designed and fabricated. We designed the microbolometer with a pixel size of $35\times35$, $44\times44{\mu}m^2$ and a fill factor of about 70 % by considering such important factors as the thermal conductance, thermal time constant, the temperature coefficient of resistance, and device resistance. Finally, we successfully fabricated the microbolometer by using surface MEMS technology, and the properties of bolometer have been measured as such that TCR and absorptance can be achieved above -2.5%/K and about 90% with titanium layer, respectively.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.19-23
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• 2012

We report microbolometer characteristic with n-type and p-type amorphous silicon thin film. The n-type and p-type amorphous silicon thin films were made by PECVD. The electrical properties of n-type and p-type a-Si:H thin films were investigated as a function of doping gas flow rate. The doping gas used $B_2H_6/Ar$ (1:9) and $PH_3/Ar$ (1:9). In general, the conductivity of doping a-Si:H thin films increased as doping gas increase but the conductivity of a-Si:H thin films decreased as the doping gas increase because doping gas concentration increase led to dilution gas (Ar) increase as the same time. We fabricated an amorphous silicon microbolometer using surface micromachining technology. The fabricated microbolometer had a negative TCR of 2.3%. The p-type microbolometer had responsivity of $5{\times}10^4V/W$ and high detectivity of $3{\times}10^8cm(Hz)^{1/2}/W$. The p-type microbolometer had more detectivity than n-type for less noise value.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.343-344
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• 2008

A surface micromachined uncooled microbolometer based on the amorphous silicon was designed, fabricated, and characterized. We designed the microbolometer with a pixel size of $44\times44{\mu}m^2$ and a fill factor of about 50 % ~ 70% by considering such important factors as the thermal conductance, thermal time constant, the temperature coefficient of resistance, and device resistance. Also, we successfully fabricated the microbolometer by using surface MEMS technology. Finally, we investigated responsivity and detectivity properties depends on the active area size.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.75-80
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• 2008

In this work, we optimized a microbolometer for application of a $CO_2$ detector by using MEMS technology. We fabricated a stable thermal isolation structure by varying the lengths of supporting legs which affect bolometer performance. We could fabricate more stable thermal isolation structure for the microbolometer through the results of ANSYS simulations, and minimize the fabrication processes by using bulk micromachining to use a $CO_2$ detector. The microbolometer shows a detectivity of $2.5{\times}109$ cmHz$^{1/2}$/W at a chopper frequency of 8 Hz and a bias current of $6.25\;{\mu}A$ with a vacuum package of about $3.0{\times}10.3$ torr. Therefore, we put to conclusion that the microbolometer optimized in this experiment could be useful for the application of a $CO_2$ detector.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.300-305
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• 2018

The uncooled microbolometer thermal sensor for low cost and mass volume was designed to target the new infrared market that includes smart device, automotive, energy management, and so on. The microbolometer sensor features 80x60 pixels low-resolution format and enables the use of wafer-level vacuum packaging (WLVP) technology. Read-out IC (ROIC) implements infrared signal detection and offset correction for fixed pattern noise (FPN) using an internal digital to analog convertor (DAC) value control function. A reliable WLVP thermal sensor was obtained with the design of lid wafer, the formation of Au80%wtSn20% eutectic solder, outgassing control and wafer to wafer bonding condition. The measurement of thermal conductance enables us to inspect the internal atmosphere condition of WLVP microbolometer sensor. The difference between the measurement value and design one is $3.6{\times}10-9$ [W/K] which indicates that thermal loss is mainly on account of floating legs. The mean time to failure (MTTF) of a WLVP thermal sensor is estimated to be about 10.2 years with a confidence level of 95 %. Reliability tests such as high temperature/low temperature, bump, vibration, etc. were also conducted. Devices were found to work properly after accelerated stress tests. A thermal camera with visible camera was developed. The thermal camera is available for non-contact temperature measurement providing an image that merged the thermal image and the visible image.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.44-48
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• 2013

For a successful commercialization of microbolometer, it is required to develop a robust package including thermal stabilizing mechanism. In order to regulate the temperature within some operating range, thermoelectric cooler is generally used but it's not easy to model the whole package due to the coupled physics nature of thermoelectric cooler. In this paper, SPICE-compatible modeling methodology of a microbolometer package is presented, whose steady-state results matched well with FEM results at the maximum difference of 5.95%. Although the time constant difference was considerable as 15.7%, it can be offset by the quite short simulation time compared to FEM simulation. The developed model was also proven to be useful for designing the thermal stabilizer through parametric and transient analyses under the various working conditions.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.270-274
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• 2011

This paper presents a parameterized simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis (SPICE) model of a two-level microbolometer based on negative-temperature-coefficient thin films, such as vanadium oxide or amorphous silicon. The proposed modeling begins from the electric-thermal analogy and is realized on the SPICE modeling environment. The model consists of parametric components whose parameters are material properties and physical dimensions, and can be used for the fast design study, as well as for the co-design with the readout integrated circuit. The developed model was verified by comparing the obtained results with those from finite element method simulations for three design cases. The thermal conductance and the thermal capacity, key performance parameters of a microbolometer, showed the average difference of only 4.77% and 8.65%, respectively.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.367-374
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• 2016

This paper presents an electro-thermal modeling of an amorphous silicon (a-Si) uncooled microbolometer. This modeling provides a comprehensive solution for simulating the electro-thermal characteristics of the fabricated microbolometer and enables electro-thermal co-simulation between MEMS and CMOS integrated circuits. To validate this model, three types of uncooled microbolometers were fabricated using a post-CMOS surface micromachining process. The simulation results show a maximum discrepancy of 2.6% relative to the experimental results.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society Of Semiconductor Equipment Technology
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• 2005.09a
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• pp.124-128
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• 2005

To produce a highly sensitive uncooled microbolometer, the development of a high-performance thermometric material is essential. In this work, amorphous vanadium-tungsten oxide was developed as a thermometric material at a low temperature of $300^{\circ}C$, and the microbolometer, coupled with the material, was designed and fabricated using surface micromachining technology. The vanadium-tungsten oxide showed good properties for application to the microbolometer, Such as a high temperature coefficient of resistance of over -4.0 $\%$/K and good compatibility with the surface micromachining and integrated circuit fabrication process due to its low fabrication temperature. As a result, the uncooled microbolometer could be fabricated with high detectivity over $1.0\;{\times}\;10^9\;cmHz^{1/2}/W$ at a bias current of $7.5\;{\mu}A$ and a chopper frequency of 10-20 Hz