| 1. |
- Mattsson, Claes, 1978-
(författare)
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Design, Fabrication and Optimization of Thermal Radiation Detectors Based on Thin Polymer Membranes
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The number of applications in which infrared radiation sensors are used is increasing. In some applications, the cost of the sensor itself is an issue, and simple solutions are thus required. In this thesis, the investigations have related to the use of thin polymer membranes in thermal infrared sensors, such as bolometers and thermopiles. Infrared sensors are usually subcategorized into photonic sensors and thermal sensors. For detection of infrared radiation using a photodetector, there is a requirement for low band-gap material. The need of cooling makes infrared photodetectors rather expensive, and not an alternative for low-cost applications. In thermal sensors, the heat generated from the incident infrared radiation is converted into an electrical output by means of a heat sensitive element. Thermal sensors operate at room temperature, which makes them a low-cost alternative. The basic structure of thermal sensors consists of a temperature sensitive element connected to a heat sink through a structure with low thermal conductance. It is common to use thin membranes of Silicon or Silicon Nitride as thermal insulation between the heat sink and the sensitive element. In comparison, polymers have a thermal conductance that is lower than in these materials, and this increases the generated temperature in the sensitive element. A polymer such as SU-8 has a low thermal conductivity and is applied using a spin coater. This reduces the number of complex processing steps. This thesis presents a new application of SU-8 as a closed membrane in a thermal sensor. The concept was initially demonstrated by fabricating a nickel bolometer and titanium/nickel thermopile structure with a 5 µm SU-8 / SiO2 membrane. However, for the sensor responsivity to be able to compete with commercial thermal sensors the structures, some optimization was required. Since the thermopile generates its own voltage output and requires no external bias, the optimizations were focused on this structure. There exist a number available software tools for thermal simulation of components. However, to the author’s best knowledge, there exist no tool for design optimization of thermopiles with closed membranes. An optimization tool using iterative thermal simulations was developed and evaluated. A new thermopile structure, based on the optimization results, was both fabricated and characterized. Using an infrared laser with a small spot, the measured responsivity of the manufactured thermopile was higher than that of a commercial sensor. In the case of a defocused spot and for longer wavelengths, the infrared absorption in the absorption layer reduces and degrades the responsivity. The thermopile was further evaluated as a sensor in a carbon dioxide meter application based on the NDIR principle. An increase in the CO2 concentration demonstrated a clear decrease in the thermopile voltage response, as was expected. By normalizing the voltage response and comparing it with a commercial sensor, this showed that the SU-8 based thermopile is relatively more sensitive to changes in the CO2 concentration.
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| 2. |
- Mattsson, Claes, 1978-, et al.
(författare)
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Design of a Micromachined Thermopile Infrared Sensor with a Self-Supported SiO2/SU-8 Membrane
- 2008
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Ingår i: IEEE Sensors Journal. - Piscataway, USA : IEEE. - 1530-437X .- 1558-1748. ; 8:12, s. 2044-2052
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the infrared region of the spectrum thermoelectric detectors such as the thermopile, are extensively used. These detectors rely on the well-known Seebeck effect, in which there is a direct conversion of thermoelectric differentials into electrical voltage. The temperature difference over thermocouple junctions is in general, created by forming a thin membrane connected to the silicon bulk. In many existing thermopiles, materials such as Si and Si3N4 have been used as membrane. These materials suffer from relatively high thermal conductivity, which lowers the membrane temperature and reduces the sensitivity of the detector. A material such as SU-8 2002 has a much lower thermal conductivity and is applied using standard photolithographic processing steps. This work presents thermal simulations regarding the use of SU-8 2002 as a thermal insulating membrane as compared to Si and Si3N4. The simulation results presented show that the temperature increase in a 5 µm SiO2/SU-8 membrane is about 9% higher than in a 1 µm Si3N4 membrane, despite the membrane thickness being increased by a factor of 5. A thermopile consisting of 196 serially interconnected Ti/Ni thermocouples positioned on a 5 µm SiO2/SU-8 2002 membrane has been fabricated. The sensitivity of the fabricated device has been evaluated in the infrared region, using a 1.56 µm IR laser and a xenon arc lamp together with a monochromator. The measurement results show a sensitivity of approximately 5 V/W over the wavelength range between 900 - 2200 nm. Measurements performed in a vacuum chamber show that the sensitivity of the detector could be increased by more than a factor of 3 by mounting the detector in a vacuum sealed capsule.
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| 3. |
- Mattsson, Claes, 1978-, et al.
(författare)
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Experimental evaluation of a thermopile detector with SU-8 membrane, in a carbon dioxide meter setup
- 2009
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Ingår i: IEEE Sensors Journal. - 1530-437X .- 1558-1748. ; 9:12, s. 1633-1638
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Continuous control of the carbon dioxide levels in the ventilation systems in office buildings and public schools has been shown to increase productivity and save money. However, these measurement systems require further developments in order to be more cost effective. This paper presents an evaluation of an Al/Bi thermopile detector with a 4 µm thin SiO2/SU-8 membrane in a CO2 meter application using the NDIR (Non-Dispersive Infrared Technology). The system consists of an 11 cm aluminum tube, used as the sample chamber and in which a light source and a thermopile detector with a 4.26 µm optical bandpass filter are positioned on its opposite sides. The light source is pulsed with a frequency of 0.5 Hz. The voltage response of the Al/Bi thermopile is measured for different CO2 concentrations, and, as expected according to the Lambert-Beer law, there is an exponential decrease in the measured intensity. The absolute response is about 50 % lower than for a commercial HMS J21 thermopile from Heimann Sensor GmbH. In relative terms, on the other hand, the Al/Bi thermopile is more sensitive for changes in the CO2 concentration. At 7500 ppm, the voltage response has decreased to 40 % of the reference response measured in the nitrogen atmosphere.
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| 4. |
- Mattsson, Claes, 1978-, et al.
(författare)
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Fabrication and characterization of a design optimized SU-8 thermopile with enhanced sensitivity
- 2009
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Ingår i: Measurement science and technology. - : IOP. - 0957-0233 .- 1361-6501. ; 20:11, s. 115202-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the infrared wavelength region, thermopiles are an important type of detectors. A major advantage of thermopiles is their non-cooling requirement. Depending on the applied absorption layer, their responsivity is often rather flat within a large wavelength region. This work presents the fabrication and characterization of a sensitivity and design optimized thermopile detector with a 4 µm self-supported SiO2/SU-8 membrane. The structure consists of 240 series interconnected thermocouple junctions obtained by a metal evaporation and lift-off. Two metal combinations have been evaluated, namely, nickel/titanium and aluminium/bismuth. Series resistances of 76 k and 283 k were measured for the Ni/Ti thermopile and the Al/Bi thermopile respectively. For the Al/Bi thermopile a responsivity of 60 V/W was achieved using a 1.56 µm fibre coupled diode laser with a power of 3.5 mW. Using a white light source with a radiation flux of 0.45 W/mm2 a voltage response of 68 V mm2/W was measured for the Al/Bi thermopile. The time constant of the characterized detectors was calculated as being 70 ms, using the pulsed IR laser.
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| 5. |
- Mattsson, Claes, 1978-
(författare)
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Fabrication and Characterization of Photon Radiation Detectors
- 2007
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis involves a study the fabrication and characterization of photon radiation detectors. The focus has been to develop and improve the performance of optical measurement systems, but also to reduce their cost. The work is based on the study of two types of detectors, the position sensitive detector and the thermal detector. Infrared detectors are usually subcategorized into photonic detectors and thermal detectors. In the thermal detectors, heat generated from the incident infrared radiation is converted into an electrical output by some sensitive element. The basic structure of these detectors consists of a temperature sensitive element connected to a heat sink through a thermally isolating structure. Thin membranes of Silicon and Silicon nitride have been commonly used as thermally insulation between the heat sink and the sensitive elements. However, these materials suffer from relatively high thermal conductivity, which lowers the response of the detector. The fabrication of these membranes also requires rather advanced processing techniques and equipment. SU-8 is an epoxy based photoresist, which has low thermal conductivity and requires only standard photolithography. A new application of SU-8 as a self-supported membrane in a thermal detector is presented. This application is demonstrated by the fabrication and characterization of both an infrared sensitive thermopile and a bolometer detector. The bolometer consists of nickel resistances connected in a Wheatstone bridge configuration, whereas the thermopile uses serially interconnected Ti/Ni thermocouple junctions. The position sensitive detectors include the lateral effect photodiodes and the quadrant detectors. Typical applications for these detectors are distance measurements and as centering devices. In the quadrant detectors, the active region consists of four pn-junctions separated by a narrow gap. The size of the active region in these detectors depends on the size of the light spot. In outdoor application, this spot size dependence degrades the performance of the four-quadrant detectors. In this thesis, a modified four-quadrant detector having the pn-junctions separated by a larger distance has been fabricated and characterized. By separating the pn-junctions the horizontal electric filed in the active region is removed, making the detector spot size insensitive. Linearity of the lateral effect photodiodes depends on the uniformity of the resistive layer in the active region. The introduction of mechanical stress in an LPSD results in a resistance change mainly due to resistivity changes, and this affects the linearity of the detector. Measurements and simulations, where mechanical stress is applied to LPSDs are presented, and support this conclusion.
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| 6. |
- Mattsson, Claes, 1978-, et al.
(författare)
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Thermal simulation and design optimization of a thermopile infrared detector with SU-8 membrane
- 2009
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Ingår i: Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering. - : IOP Publishing. - 0960-1317 .- 1361-6439. ; 19:5, s. 055016-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Simulation and optimization tools are commonly used in the design phase of advanced electronics devices. In this work, we present a thermal simulation and design optimization tool for infrared thermopile detectors based on a closed membrane structure. The tool can be used to simulate and optimize thermopile detectors with an arbitrary number of design parameters. The optimization utilizes the Nelder–Mead and the adaptive simulated annealing optimization algorithms to maximize the system performance. A thermopile detector with an SU-8-based closed membrane and metal–metal thermocouples has been simulated and optimized. Based on the results generated by the tool, an optimized detector has been fabricated and characterized. The results from the measurements presented are in good agreement with the simulation results.
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