Research Summaries

Back MEMS Bi-Material Focal Plane Array for Real Time THz Imaging

Fiscal Year 2011
Division Graduate School of Engineering & Applied Science
Department Physics
Investigator(s) Karunasiri, Gamani
Grbovic, Dragoslav
Sponsor Office of Naval Research (Navy)
Summary The objective of the proposed research is to investigate the use of bi-material uncooled infrared technology for real time imaging at THz frequencies. This detection scheme involves deflection of a bi-material based suspended structure to minute changes in temperature as a result of absorption of THz radiation. The key advantage of this approach compared to microbolometer focal plane arrays is the lack of on-chip readout electronics which highly simplifies the fabrication process. Instead, the readout of the deflection at each pixel in the FPA is probed by illumination of the FPA by a visible LED and monitoring the reflected light using an off-the shelf CCD camera. More importantly, the use of optical readout eliminates the self-heating effects during the electronic readout of microbolometer based FPAs which allows longer integration times and hence higher sensitivity. In addition, the elimination of electrical connections to the pixels provides tighter thermal isolation which translates into higher responsivity in comparison with the microbolometer sensors.
Keywords
Publications Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal