Uncooled infrared focal plane imager and microelectromechanical infrared detector for use therein
First Claim
1. An uncooled infrared focal plane imager comprising:
- a plurality of microelectromechanical infrared detectors disposed in a plane wherein each of the infrared detectors includes;
a substrate;
a sensor positioned in an area thermally isolated from the substrate for sensing temperature and to provide a corresponding temperature signal representing incident power of infrared energy; and
a heater for controllably hearing the sensor based on the temperature signal, wherein a change in incident power of the infrared energy is substantially balanced by a corresponding change in heat generated by the heater to heat the sensor; and
a signal processor for processing the temperature signals from the infrared detectors to obtain an infrared image.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An uncooled infrared imager and associated microelectromechanical infrared detectors based on an active pixel heat balancing technique are disclosed. The imager is fabricated using a commercial CMOS process plus a simple electrochemical etch stop releasing step. The basic active pixel detector structure consists of a simple cascode CMOS amplifier in which the PMOS devices are built inside a thermally-isolated floating n-well. The intrinsic coupling of the cascode currents with the self-heating of the well forms an electrothermal feedback loop that tends to maintain the well temperature constant. By employing the heat balance between incoming infrared radiation and the PMOS device power dissipation, the responsivity of the detector is controlled by the cascode biasing current.
58 Citations
20 Claims
-
1. An uncooled infrared focal plane imager comprising:
-
a plurality of microelectromechanical infrared detectors disposed in a plane wherein each of the infrared detectors includes;
a substrate;
a sensor positioned in an area thermally isolated from the substrate for sensing temperature and to provide a corresponding temperature signal representing incident power of infrared energy; and
a heater for controllably hearing the sensor based on the temperature signal, wherein a change in incident power of the infrared energy is substantially balanced by a corresponding change in heat generated by the heater to heat the sensor; and
a signal processor for processing the temperature signals from the infrared detectors to obtain an infrared image. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A microelectromechanical infrared detector comprising:
-
a substrate;
a sensor positioned in an area thermally isolated from the substrate for sensing temperature and to provide a corresponding temperature signal representing incident power of infrared energy; and
a heater for controllably heating the sensor based on the temperature signal, wherein a change in incident power of infrared energy is substantially balanced by a corresponding change in heat generated by the heater to heat the sensor. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
Specification