Cross Talk among Pyroelectric Sensitive Elements in Thermal Imaging Device

The two-dimensional modeling of the non-stationary thermal state and voltage responsivity of the sensitive elements usually used in solid-state pyroelectric focal plane arrays are presented. Temperature distributions under periodical thermal excitation and the response of the thermal imaging device, which is composed of the pyroelectric sensitive elements mounted on a single silicon substrate, are numerically calculated. The sensitive element consists of a covering metal layer, infrared polymer absorber, front metal contact, sensitive pyroelectric element, the interconnecting column and the bulk silicon readout. The results of the numerical modeling show that the thermal crosstalk between sensitive elements to be critical especially at low frequency (f < 10Hz) of periodically modulated light. It is also shown that the use of our models gives the possibility to improve the design, operating regimes and sensitivity of the device.