Fabrication and characterization of a design optimized SU-8 thermopile with enhanced sensitivity

• 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.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Elektroteknik och elektronik -- Annan elektroteknik och elektronik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering -- Other Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Fabrication

Thermopile

SU-8

Electronics

Elektronik

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)