• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
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• v.59 no.4
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• pp.450-455
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• 2010

The performance modeling of a $25{\mu}m$ pitch VGA ${\mu}$-bolometer with the self-aligned thermal resistor structure is carried out. The self-aligned thermal resistor can be utilized for the maximizing the thermal resistance and the fill factor of a bolometer, so the performance improvement can be expected. From the results of the performance modeling of the micro-bolometer with self-align thermal resistor for a $25{\mu}m$ pitch $640{\times}480$ microbolometer designed with $0.6{\mu}m$ minimum feature size, the drastic improvements of NETD from 38.7 mK to 19.1 mK, responsivity of 1.9 times are expected with a self aligned thermal resistor structure. The main reason for the performance improvements with a self-aligned thermal resistor structure comes from the increasement of the thermal resistance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2005.07a
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• pp.180-182
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• 2005

비냉각형 적외선 검출 회로 설계 시 공정상 변화에 의해 발생하는 센서의 저항값 변동이 크다. 본 논문에서는 이것을 해결하기 위해 차동적 입력 수신 구조를 이용한 방법을 제시하였다. 볼로미터 타입 비냉각형 적외선 영상 센서 회로는 입사된 적외선 에너지 양에 따라 센서의 저항값이 변하는 특성을 이용하며 그에 따른 전압 또는 전류의 변화를 측정하여 적외선의 파장을 알아내는 방식으로 검출회로 설계 시 가장 큰 문제점인 공정상의 변화 등으로 인한 신호검출 회로의 오동작을 개선하기 위하여 검출회로의 입력단을 차동적으로 받아들이도록 설계하였다.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.119-122
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• 2009

As infrared light radiates, the CMOS Readout IC (ROIC) for the microbolometer typed infrared sensor detects voltage or current which is caused by the variation of resistance in the bolometer sensor. A serious problem we may have in designing the ROIC is the value of bolometer and reference resistors will be changed due to process variation. Since each pixel does not have the same value of resistance, fixed pattern noise problems happen during the sensor operations. In this paper, we propose a novel technique to compensate the fluctuation of reference resistance with taking account of process variation. By using a comparator and a cross coupled latch, we will make the value of reference resistor same as the bolometer's.

• 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.17 no.4
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• pp.250-255
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• 2008

A vanadium pentoxide ($V_2O_5$)-based bolometric infrared (IR) sensor has been designed and fabricated using micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) technology for glucose detection and its resistive characteristics has been illustrated. The proposed bolometric infrared sensor is composed of the vanadium pentoxide array that shows superior temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) and standard silicon micromachining compatibility. In order to achieve the best performance, deposited $V_2O_5$ thin film is optimized by adequate rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process. Annealed vanadium oxide thin film has demonstrated a linear characteristic and relatively high TCR value (${-4}%/^{\circ}C$). The resistance of vanadium oxide is changed by IR intensity based on glucose concentration.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.306-310
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• 2018

In order to develop a highly sensitive infrared sensor, it is necessary to develop techniques for decreasing the rate of heat absorption and the transition of the absorption wavelength to a longer wavelength, both of which can be induced by decreasing the pixel size of the bolometer. Therefore, in this study, $1{\mu}m$ hole-arrays with a subwavelength smaller than the incident infrared wavelength were formed on the amorphous silicon-based microbolometer pixels in the absorber, which consisted of a TiN absorption layer, an a-Si resistance layer and a SiNx membrane support layer. We demonstrated that it is possible to reduce the thermal time constant by 16% relative to the hole-patternless bolometer, and that it is possible to shift the absorption peak to a shorter wavelength as well as increase absorption in the $4-8{\mu}m$ band to compensate for the infrared long-wavelength transition. These results demonstrate the potential for a new approach to improve the performance of high-resolution microbolometers.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.349-353
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• 2016

Recently, research on bolometer-type uncooled infrared image sensor which is made for industrial applications has been increasing. In general, it is difficult to calibrate fixed pattern noise (FPN) of bolometer array. In this paper, average-current calibration algorithm is presented for reducing bolometer resistance offset. A resistor which is produced by standard CMOS process, on the average, has a deviation. We compensate for deviation of each resistor using average-current calibration algorithm. The proposed algorithm has been implemented by a chip which is consisted of a bolometer pixel array, average current generators, current-to-voltage converters (IVCs), a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), and analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). These bolometer-resistor array and readout circuit were designed and manufactured by $0.35{\mu}m$ standard CMOS process.

• 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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• 2008.06a
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• pp.148-149
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• 2008

As infrared light is radiated, the CMOS Readout IC (ROIC) for the microbolometer type infrared sensor detects voltage or current when the resistance value in the bolometer sensor varies. One of the serious problems in designing the ROIC is that resistances in the bolometer and reference resistor have process variation. This means that each pixel does not have the same resistance, causing serious fixed pattern noise problems in sensor operations. In this paper, Reference resistor compensation technique was proposed. This technique is to compensate the reference resistance considering the process variation, and it has the same reference resistance value as a bolometer cell resistance by using a comparator and a cross coupled latch.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.61 no.12
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• pp.1886-1891
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• 2012

In this paper, the analytical models for the electrothermal feedback of a ${\mu}$-bolometer focal plane array(FPA) are proposed and applied to the conceptually designed FPA to investigate the electrothermal feedback effect on bolometer FPA signal. The temperature and resistance change of the ${\mu}$-bolometer by the electrothermal feedback(ETF) model are increased upto 20 and 35.7 % of those of no feedback case, respectively, while those by the effective thermal conductance(ETC) model increased 8.5 and 15.1 %. The integration current and output voltage of a CTIA used as an column amplifier of FPA are also increased upto 41.6 and 32.4 % by the ETF model, while increased upto 17.2 and 13.5 % by the ETC model. The proposed models give more accurate temperature change, accordingly larger signal than no feedback considering case. Electrothermal feedback effect should be considered to design a high performance and high density ${\mu}$-bolometer FPA. The proposed models are very useful to investigate the transient thermal analysis, also considered to be useful to predict the responsivity and dynamic range of ${\mu}$-bolometer FPAs.