An overview of uncooled infrared sensors technology based on amorphous silicon and silicon germanium alloys

At the present time there are commercially available large un-cooled micro-bolometer arrays (as large as 1024×768 pixels) for a variety of thermal imaging applications. Different thermo-sensing materials have been employed as thermo sensing elements as Vanadium Oxide (VO_x), metals, and amorphous and polycrystalline semiconductors. Those materials present good characteristics but also have some disadvantages. As a consequence none of the commercially available arrays contain optimum pixels with an optimum thermo-sensing material. This paper reviews the development of the un-cooled bolometer technology and the research achievements on this area, with special attention on the key factors that would lead to improve the pixels performance characteristics. The work considers the R&D of microbolometer arrays and the integration with MEMS and IC technologies. A comparative study with the state of the art and data reported in literature is presented. Finally, further directions of uncooled bolometer based in thin films materials are also discussed in this paper. (© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)