Uncooled Infrared Imaging Arrays and Systems

364 Pages·1997·14.79 MB·English

by  Paul W. Kruse and David D. Skatrud (Eds.)

Uncooled Infrared Imaging
Arrays and Systems
SEMICONDUCTORS
AND SEMIMETALS
Volume 47
Semiconductors and Semimetals
A Treatise
Edited by R. K. Willardson Eicke R. Weber
CONSULTING PHYSICIST DEPARTMEOFN MTA TERIALSSC IENCE
SPOKANEW, ASHINGTON AND MINERALE NGINEERING
UNIVERSIOTFY C ALIFORNIA
AT BERKELEY
In memory of Dr. Albert C. Beer, Founding Co-Editor in 1966
and Editor Emeritus of Semiconductors and Semimetals.
Died January 19, 1997, Columbus, OH.
Uncooled Infrared Imaging
Arrays and Systems
SEMICONDUCTORS
AND SEMIMETALS
Volume 47
Volume Editors
PAUL W. KRUSE
INFRARED SOLUTIONS, INC
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA
DAVID D. SKATRUD
DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
PHYSICS DIVISION
ARMY RESEARCH OFFICE
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK
NORTH CAROLINA
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Contents
LISTO F CONTRIBUTOR.S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
PREFACE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Chapter 1 Historical Overview
Rudolph G. Buser and Michuel F. Tompsett
I . Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
I1. History of Electronic Materials Research for Uncooled Imagers . . . . . . . 6
1. Ferroelectric- Pyroelectric Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2 . Resistive Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
111. Uncooled Imaging Arrays Using Silicon Read-Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
I . Ferroelectric-Pyroelectric Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2 . Resistive Bolometric Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1V.Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Chapter 2 Principles of Uncooled Infrared Focal Plane Arrays
Paul W. Kruse
I . Importance of the Thermal Isolation Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
11. Principal Thermal Detection Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
1 . Resistive Bolometers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2 . Pyroelectric Detectors and Ferroelectric Bolometers . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3 . Thermoelectric Detectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
111 . Fundamental Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
1. Temperature Fluctuation Noise Limit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2 . Background Fluctuation Noise Limit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
IV. Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
References and Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
40
V
vi CONTENTS
Chapter 3 Monolithic Silicon Microbolometer Arrays
R . A . Wood
I . Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
I1. Responsivity of Microbolometers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
1. Microbolometer Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
2. Resistance Changes in Microbolometer Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3. Microbolometer Heat Balance Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4 . Solutions of the Heat Balance Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
5 . Heat Balance with No Applied Bias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
6. Heat Balance with Applied Bias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
7. Calculations of V-I Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
8. LoadLine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
9. Low-Frequency Noise in Microbolometer with Applied Bias . . . . . . . 68
10 . Microbolometer Responsivity with Pulsed Bias or Large Radiation
Signals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
11. Numerical Calculation of Microbolometer Performance . . . . . . . . . 71
111. Noise in Bolometers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1. Bolometer Resistance Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2. Noise from Bias Resistors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3. Thermal Conductance Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
4. Radiation Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5 . Total Electrical Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
6. Preamplifier Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
IV . Microbolometer Signal-to-Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
1. Noise Equivalent Power (NEP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
2. Noise Equivalent Temperature Difference (NETD) . . . . . . . . . . . 86
3 . Detectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
4 . Comparison with the Ideal Bolometer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5 . Johnson Noise Approximation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
V . Electric Read-Out Circuits for Two-Dimensional Microbolometer Arrays . . . 91
VI . Offset Compensation Schemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
VII . Gain Correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
VIII . Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
IX . Microbolometer Physical Design, Fabrication, and Packaging . . . . . . . . 98
1. One-Level Microbolometers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
2. Two-Level Microbolometers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
3. Packaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
X . Practical Camera Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Chapter 4 Hybrid Pyroelectric-Ferroelectric Bolometer Arrays
Charles M . Hanson
I . Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
I1. Principles of Pyroelectric Detectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
1. Pyroelectricity and Ferroelectric Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
2. Modes of Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
3. Signal and Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
111. Practical Considerations and Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
CONTENTS vii
1. Ferroelectric Material Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
2. Thermal Isolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
3. Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
4 . Read-out Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
5 . System Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
6. Choppers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
IV. Systems Implementations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Chapter 5 Monolithic Pyroelectric Bolometer Arrays
Dennis L . Polla and Jun R . Choi
I . Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
I1 . Detector Design Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
1. Materials Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
2. Materials Characterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
3. Thermal Isolation Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
4. Micromachined Sensor Process Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
5 . Integrated Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
I11 . Process Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
IV . Silicon-Based Integrated Pyroelectric Detector Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . 189
1 . Cell Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
2. Circuit Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
3. Silicon-Based PbTiO, Array Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
V . Gallium Arsenide-Based Integrated Pyroelectric Detectors . . . . . . . . . 197
VI . Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Chapter 6 Thermoelectric Uncooled Infrared Focal Plane Arrays
Nobukuzu Teranishi
I . Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
I1. Thermopile Infrared Detector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
1 . Mechanism for Uncooled Infrared Detector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
2. Comparison Among Uncooled Infrared Detector Schemes . . . . . . . . 205
3. The Seebeck Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
4 . Various Thermopile Infrared Detectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
111. A 128 x 128 Pixel Thermopile Infrared Focal Plane Array . . . . . . . . . 210
1. Polysilicon Thermopile Infrared Detector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
2 . Characteristics of a Thermopile lnfrared Detector . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
3. Signal Read-Out Circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
4. Charge-Coupled Device Scanner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
5.Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
6 . Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
7 . Future Improvements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
IV. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
viii CONTENTS
Chapter 7 Pyroelectric Vidicon
Michael F. Tompsett
].History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
I1 . Performance Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Chapter 8 Tunneling Infrared Sensors
T. W Kenny
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
I1. Sensor Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
1. Sensor Thermal Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
2 . Sensor Mechanical and Electrical Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
3. Noise Model and Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
111 . Tunneling Transducer Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
1. Comparison of Tunneling and Capacitive Transducers . . . . . . . . . . 241
2. Tunneling Transducer Design Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
1V. Tunneling Infrared Sensor Design and Fabrication . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
V . Tunneling Transducer Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
VI . Infrared Sensor Operation and Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
VII. Future Prospects for the Tunneling Infrared Sensor . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
VIII . Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Chapter 9 Application of Quartz Microresonators to Uncooled Infrared
Imaging Arrays
.
John R . Vig. Raymond L . Filler and Yoonkee Kim
I . Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
I1. Quartz Microresonators as Infrared Sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
111. Quartz Thermometers and Their Temperature Coefficients . . . . . . . . . 212
IV. Oscillator Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
V . Frequency Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
VI . Thermal Isolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
VII . Infrared Absorption of Microresonators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
VIII . Predicted Performance of Microresonator Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
IX . Producibility and Other Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
X . Summary and Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Appendix. Performance Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Chapter 10 Application of Uncooled Monolithic Thermoelectric Linear
Arrays to Imaging Radiometers
Paul W. Kruse
I . Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
I1. Identification of Incipient Failure of Railcar Wheels . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
CONTENTS ix
1 . Technical Description of the Model IR 1000 Imaging Radiometer . . . . . 298
2 . Performance of the Model 1R 1000 lmaging Radiometer . . . . . . . . . 300
3. Initial Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
4.Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
111. Imaging Radiometer for Predictive and Preventive Maintenance . . . . . . . 309
1 . Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
2 . Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
3. Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
4.Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
INDEX 319
CONTENOTFS V OLUMESI N THISS ERIES 327