• 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.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.367-374
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• 2016

This paper presents an electro-thermal modeling of an amorphous silicon (a-Si) uncooled microbolometer. This modeling provides a comprehensive solution for simulating the electro-thermal characteristics of the fabricated microbolometer and enables electro-thermal co-simulation between MEMS and CMOS integrated circuits. To validate this model, three types of uncooled microbolometers were fabricated using a post-CMOS surface micromachining process. The simulation results show a maximum discrepancy of 2.6% relative to the experimental results.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society Of Semiconductor Equipment Technology
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• 2005.09a
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• pp.124-128
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• 2005

To produce a highly sensitive uncooled microbolometer, the development of a high-performance thermometric material is essential. In this work, amorphous vanadium-tungsten oxide was developed as a thermometric material at a low temperature of $300^{\circ}C$, and the microbolometer, coupled with the material, was designed and fabricated using surface micromachining technology. The vanadium-tungsten oxide showed good properties for application to the microbolometer, Such as a high temperature coefficient of resistance of over -4.0 $\%$/K and good compatibility with the surface micromachining and integrated circuit fabrication process due to its low fabrication temperature. As a result, the uncooled microbolometer could be fabricated with high detectivity over $1.0\;{\times}\;10^9\;cmHz^{1/2}/W$ at a bias current of $7.5\;{\mu}A$ and a chopper frequency of 10-20 Hz

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.207-207
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• 2003

Uncooled infrared(IR) detectors that use a microbolometer with a large focal-plane array(FPA) have been developed with surface micromachining technology. There are many materials for microbolometers, such as metals, vanadium oxide, semiconductors and superconductors. Among theses, vanadium oxide is a promising material for uncooled microbolometers due to it high temperature coefficient of resistance(TCR) at room temperature. It is, however, is very difficult to deposit vanadium oxide thin films having a high TCR and low resistance because of the process limits in microbolometer fabrication. In general, vanadium oxides have been applied to microbolometer in mixed phases formed by ion beam deposition methods at low temperature with TCR in the range from -1.5 to -2.0%K.

• IEIE Transactions on Smart Processing and Computing
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.251-257
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• 2015

This work presents modelling and simulation of a readout integrated circuit (ROIC) design considering pair-wise serial configuration along with thermal modeling of an uncooled microbolometer array. A fully differential approach is used at the input stage in order to reduce fixed pattern noise due to the process variation and self-heating-related issues. Each pair of microbolometers is pulse-biased such that they both fall under the same self-heating point along the self-heating trend line. A ${\pm}10%$ process variation is considered. The proposed design is simulated with a reference input image consisting of an array of $127{\times}92$ pixels. This configuration uses only one unity gain differential amplifier along with a single 14-bit analog-to-digital converter in order to minimize the dynamic range requirement of the ROIC.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.348-352
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• 2015

Thin nickel oxide films formed on uncooled and cooled $SiO_2/Si$ substrates using a radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputter powered by 200 W in a mixed atmosphere of argon and oxygen. Grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction and field emission scanning electron microscopy are used for the structural analysis of nickel oxide films. The electrical conductivity required for better bolometric performance is estimated by means of a four-point probe system. Columnar and (200) preferred orientations are discovered in both films regardless of substrate cooling. Electric resistivity, however, is greatly influenced by the substrate cooling. Oxygen partial pressure increase during the nickel oxide deposition leads to a rapid decrease in resistivity, and the resistivity is higher in the cooled nickel oxide samples. Even when small microstructure variations are applied, lower resistivity in favor of low noise performance is acquired in the uncooled samples.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.533-538
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• 2015

Thermal characterization of individual pixels in microbolometer infrared image sensors is needed for optimal design and improved performance. In this work, we used thermoreflectance microscopy on uncooled microbolometer image sensors to investigate the thermal characteristics of individual pixels. Two types of microbolometer image sensors with a shared-anchor structure were fabricated and thermally characterized at various biases and vacuum levels by measuring the temperature distribution on the surface of the microbolometers. The results show that thermoreflectance microscopy can be a useful thermal characterization tool for microbolometer image sensors.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.391-392
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• 2008

A surface micromachined uncooled microbolometer based on the amorphous silicon was designed and fabricated. We designed the microbolometer with a pixel size of $35\times35$, $44\times44{\mu}m^2$ and a fill factor of about 70 % by considering such important factors as the thermal conductance, thermal time constant, the temperature coefficient of resistance, and device resistance. Finally, we successfully fabricated the microbolometer by using surface MEMS technology, and the properties of bolometer have been measured as such that TCR and absorptance can be achieved above -2.5%/K and about 90% with titanium layer, respectively.

• 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 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.