Uncooled IRFPA developments review

Abstract Today, large number of un cooled infrared detector developments are under progress due to the availability of silicon technology that enablesJealization of low cost 2D IR arrays. Development of such a structure involves a lot of trade-offs between the different parameters which characterize these detectors: • infrared flux absorption, • measurement of the temperature increase due to the incoming infrared flux absorption, • thermal insulation between detector and readout circuit, • readout of thermometer temperature variation. These trade-offs explain the number of different approaches that are under worldwide development. We present a rapid survey of the state of the art through these developments. LETlfUR has chosen resistive amorphous silicon as thermometer for his uncooled microbolometer development. After a first phase dedicated to the acquisition of the most important detector parameters in order to help the modeling and the technological development, an IRCMOS laboratory model (256 x 64 with a pitch of 50 I-Im) was realized and characterized. It was shown that NETD of 80 mK at ff1.25 Hz and 300 K background can be obtained with high thermal insulation (1.2 10 7 K/W)