• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.13-17
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• 2009

we have studied characterization of microbolometer based on the co-sputtered silicon-antimony ($Si_{1-x}Sb_x$) thin film for infrared microbolometer. We have investigated the resistivity and the temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) with annealing. We deposited the films using co-sputtering method at $200^{\circ}C$ in the Ar environment. The Sb concentration has been adjusted by applying variable DC power from Sb targets. TCR of deposited $Si_{1-x}Sb_x$ films have been measured the range of -2.3~-2.8%/K. The resistivity of the film is low but TCR is higher than the other bolometer materials. Resistivity of the films has not been affected hugely according to the low annealing temperature however the resistivity has been dramatically decreased over $250^{\circ}C$. It is caused of a phase change due to the rearrangement of Si and Sb atoms during crystallization process of the films.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.311-316
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• 2018

An antenna-coupled bolometer-type terahertz sensor was designed, fabricated, evaluated, and utilized to obtain terahertz transmission images. The sensor consists of a thin film bowtie antenna that resonates accordingly in response to an incident terahertz beam, a heater that converts the applied current in the antenna into heat, and a microbolometer that converts the rise in temperature into a change in resistance. The device is fabricated by a bulk micromachining process on a 4-inch silicon wafer. The fabricated sensor chip has a size of $2{\times}2mm$ and an active area of $0.1{\times}0.1mm^2$. The temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of the bolometer film (VOx) is 2.0%, which is acceptable for bolometer applications. The output sensor signal is proportional to the power of the incident terahertz beam. Transmission images were obtained with a 2-axis scanning imaging system that contained the sensor. The small active area of the sensor will enable the development of highly sensitive focal plane array sensors in terahertz imaging cameras in the future.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.505-508
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• 2017

This paper analyzes the effect of metal dummy structures in CMOS on antenna performances of a sub-terahertz on-chip microstrip patch antenna. A 400-GHz on-chip antenna is designed in a 45-nm CMOS process, and the resonance frequency and efficiency of the antenna are analyzed depending on the density of metal dummy structures. Antennas integrated with an oscillator are designed and fabricated for verification, and measurements are performed using quasi-optical methods with an FTIR and bolometer. The measurement results shows that the radiated power drops from 420 nW to 90 nW by 6.8 dB due to the dummy structures with the density of 27 %.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.379-384
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• 2015

An infrared image sensor is a core device in a thermal imaging system. The fabrication method of a focal plane array (FPA) is a key technology for a high resolution infrared image sensor. Each pixels in the FPA have $Si_3N_4/SiO_2$ membranes including legs to deposit bolometric materials and electrodes on Si readout circuits (ROIC). Instead of polyimide used to form a sacrificial layer, the feasibility of an amorphous silicon (${\alpha}-Si$) was verified experimentally in a $8{\times}8$ micro-bolometer array with a $50{\mu}m$ pitch. The elimination of the polyimide sacrificial layer hardened by a following plasma assisted deposition process is sometimes far from perfect, and thus requires longer plasma ashing times leading to the deformation of the membrane and leg. Since the amorphous Si could be removed in $XeF_2$ gas at room temperature, however, the fabricated micro-bolomertic structure was not damaged seriously. A radio frequency (RF) sputtered nickel oxide film was grown on a $Si_3N_4/SiO_2$ membrane fabricated using a low stress silicon nitride (LSSiN) technology with a LPCVD system. The deformation of the membrane was effectively reduced by a combining the ${\alpha}-Si$ and LSSiN process for a nickel oxide micro-bolometer.

• 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.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.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.16 no.6
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• pp.475-483
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• 2007

This paper proposes a readout integrated circuit (ROIC) for $32{\times}32$ infrared focal plane array (IRFPA) detector, which consist of reference resistor, detector resistor, reset switch, integrated capacitor and operational amplifier. Proposed ROIC is designed using $0.35{\;}{\mu}m$ 2P-4M (double poly four metal) n-well CMOS process parameters. Low noise folded cascode operational amplifier which is a key element in the ROIC showed 12.8 MHz unity-gain bandwidth and open-gain 89 dB, phase margin $67^{\circ}$, SNR 82 dB. From proposed circuit, we gained output voltage variation ${\Delta}17{\};mV/^{\circ}C$ when the detector resistor varied according to the temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.156-161
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• 2008

The fabrication of vanadium oxide films directly on Si(100) substrates by plasma atomic layer deposition(ALD) with vanadium oxytriisopropoxide(VOIP) and oxygen as the reactants have been performed at temperature ranging from 250 to $450^{\circ}C$. Growth rate of vanadium oxide was $2.8{\AA}$/cycle at $300{\sim}400^{\circ}C$ defined as ALD acceptable temperature window, Vanadium oxide has been shown the different phases at $250^{\circ}C$ and more than $300^{\circ}C$. It has been confirmed that the phase of the films deposited at $250^{\circ}C\;was\;V_2O_5$ type and that of the films above $300^{\circ}C\;was\;VO_2(T)$ type measured at room temperature, respectively. A large change in resistance and small temperature hysteresis corresponding to a temperature has been observed in the vanadium oxide film deposited at temperature $350^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.37-47
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• 2019

A reflecting omnidirectional optical system with four spherical and aspherical mirrors, for use with long-wavelength infrared light (LWIR) for night surveillance, is proposed. It is designed to include a collecting pseudo-Cassegrain reflector and an imaging inverse pseudo-Cassegrain reflector, and the design process and performance analysis is reported in detail. The half-field of view (HFOV) and F-number of this optical system are $40-110^{\circ}$ and 1.56, respectively. To use the LWIR imaging, the size of the image must be similar to that of the microbolometer sensor for LWIR. As a result, the size of the image must be $5.9mm{\times}5.9mm$ if possible. The image size ratio for an HFOV range of $40^{\circ}$ to $110^{\circ}$ after optimizing the design is 48.86%. At a spatial frequency of 20 lp/mm when the HFOV is $110^{\circ}$, the modulation transfer function (MTF) for LWIR is 0.381. Additionally, the cumulative probability of tolerance for the LWIR at a spatial frequency of 20 lp/mm is 99.75%. As a result of athermalization analysis in the temperature range of $-32^{\circ}C$ to $+55^{\circ}C$, we find that the secondary mirror of the inverse pseudo-Cassegrain reflector can function as a compensator, to alleviate MTF degradation with rising temperature.