Lecture #18

Basic Intent
This lecture will focus on several recently developed technologies for Infrared Sensing.

Modern thermal infrared detectors

In recent years, the DOD has invested a great deal of R+D funds into detection techniques which allow long-wave detection fro uncooled platfor s. !n additional focus of this wor" has #een techniques which are co pati#le with the for ation of dense arrays. One interesting device which has e erged due to this invest ent has #een the $ncooled Detector arrays ade #y %oneywell. These detectors are #ased on the si plest ther al design - a resistance ther o eter. &hat is novel a#out this device is that it co #ines the #est icrofa#rication technology with good ther o eter technology and electronics integration.

Fig. 1: Microbolometer ! drawing of the icro#olo eter is shown in 'ig. (. The #asic idea is to use silicon icrofa#rication techniques )li"e those in the !D*+,- accelero eter. to a"e an isolated

ther al structure with very little heat capacity. !s we saw in the ther o eter lecture, the ther al infrared detector is i proved #y ini i/ing the heat capacity. In the final device, a fla"e of silicon nitride with di ensions of ,- u 0 ,- u 0 -., u is floated a#ove a silicon su#strate. This fla"e is supported #y a pair of legs, and is coated with a resistive aterial with a good ther al coefficient of resistance. $nderneath the fla"e is a transistor which is used to connect the current- easuring circuit to the device using a conventional row-colu n addressing technique. The device currents are passed out to a processing circuit on the peri eter of the device #y the 0 and y etal leads. In this device, uch research went into developing a technique for depositing the nitride on top of a transistor, for releasing the devices with very high yield, and for o#taining a sensitive ther o eter in the for of a deposited etal fil . This resistor is ade fro vanadiu o0ide, which offers a T1R of a#out (2 near roo te perature. The resistance change is a result of a structural phase transition in vanadiu o0ide a#ove roo te perature, so this device ust #e held near roo te perature to allow operation with good sensitivity. %aving developed this technology, %oneywell has gone on to a"e dense arrays )3--03--., and to continue opti i/ing the perfor ance of the devices. In the last couple of years, a co plete ca era syste has #een de onstrated. This #ase technology has #een offered for licensing, and is presently #eing co erciali/ed #y several anufacturers of infrared i aging syste s. This device does not out-perfor the 41T i ager, #ut it does ena#le operation at roo te perature, and ight #e availa#le at low cost with further develop ent.

Fig. 2: Simplified Model of a !roelectric "ffect !nother very i portant technology for low-cost uncooled infrared detectors has e erged in recent years in the for of pyroelectric plastic aterial. 56D' is a pyroelectric aterial that is a decent ther o eter. !nalogous to pie/oelectricity and strain, pyroelectricity is a pheno ena in which a change in te perature causes ther al e0pansion, which causes the appearance of charge )through the pie/oelectric effect..

Infrared detectors have #een availa#le for any years #ased on other speciali/ed pie/oelectric aterials. The #est of the is Deuterated Tri-7lycine 1ulfide )DT7S.. This very e0pensive aterial offers the #est pyroelectric coefficients, and is co only used for IR detection in la#oratory spectro eters, and in early otion detection syste s. ! variety of other pyroelectric aterials are also availa#le - it is generally true that any aterial which is pie/oelectric is also pyroelectric. There are any applications which need good perfor ance )la# spectroscopy, for e0a ple., and these applications generally 8ustify use of the #est aterial availa#le. On the other hand, there are other applications in which the #est detector perfor ance is not required. In these applications, 56D' fil has #eco e the #est choice availa#le - pri arily due to the tre endously low cost of the device aterial. ! good e0a ple of a low-perfor ance application is an infrared otion detector. 9owadays, it is co on to offer #ac"yard lighting syste s or door opening syste s which detect the presence of a oving o#8ect with elevated infrared e ission. If you wave your hand a#out, the infrared scene that can #e detected features a variation in the infrared signal to so e pi0el of an i aging syste . So what is needed is an array of detector ele ents and so e sort of focused optics. &ithout the focused optics, oving your hand a#out does not produce a change in the total illu ination- and would not produce a varia#le signal. Re e #er that the pyroelectric detectors do not detect heat - only changes in heat. So, it has #eco e co on to pac"age a 56D' detector array in a low-cost optical pac"age which uses a Teflon lens to focus the light. Teflon lens aterial is also ine0pensive, and is trans issive enough in the IR that is does a decent 8o#. Typical Teflon lenses used in otion detection syste s are ade with a surface te0ture that includes several circular #u ps. These #u ps act as focusing lenses, and will #ring light fro a particular part of the scene to the detector. !s a war o#8ect oves through the scene, radiation is occasionally focused on the detector, causing a transient in signal which is detected.

Fig. #: $ Facet Lens ! good illustration of this concept is shown in 'ig. : )fro the #oo".. !s the ;person< oves across the scene, the array of lenses produces an oscillating illu ination on the detector. The

device itself is a s all )( . piece of 56D' ounted in a transistor can. ! thin etal electrode on the upper surface of the fil is grounded to the can, and a thic" electrode on the lower surface is connected to an e0ternal charge a plification circuit. ! typical otion detector allows the setting of a ;threshold<, which is si ply an electrical threshold in the detection circuit, and an output voltage which indicates the threshold has #een crossed recently. $sually, you can also set the duration of illu ination after a detection event. 4any such products are now availa#le on the ar"et. I #ought a otion detection light fi0ture at ho e depot recently which included the detector and circuit, light ount #rac"et, soc"ets for two #ul#s, and 3 #ul#s, all for 3=.>>. 1learly, this detector is ine0pensive? This syste is set up for de onstration during the lecture, and we can see that, after a #rief war -up period, it is very difficult to approach the sensor without triggering the circuit, yet the circuit does not false-trigger. So, there has #een a recent su#stantial i prove ent in the availa#ility of cru y, #ut ine0pensive IR sensors, and a fa ily of decent devices for i aging syste s are e erging. @oth of these devices will represent opportunities for new products, and should #e watched closely.