Abstract
This paper describes a thermoelectric infrared (IR) microsensor which is designed and fabricated using commercial CMOS IC processes with subsequent bulk-micromachining technology. The key feature of this sensor is that the thermocouples have been placed under the IR absorbing membrane. This infrared microsensor has the advantages of high fill factor, low noise equivalent temperature difference (NETD), and broad bandwidth. Finite element analysis has been conducted to simulate the heat transfer behavior of the device and to demonstrate the feasibility of our design. Besides, the experimental setup has been built for measuring the infrared sensor response. The results show a measured responsivity of 63 V/W and a thermal time constant of 10 ms. Copyright © 2005 by ASME.