Design and performance of a room-temperature terahertz detection array for real-time imaging

A simple mass producible detection array for terahertz radiation has been designed and fabricated. The 1 mm x 1 mm pixels consist of a
$\hbox{0.5 mm}\times \hbox{0.5}$
mm thin-film absorber on a membrane, supported by 0.28-mm-wide silicon separation beams. Thermopiles are used to measure the temperature increase of the absorber. The 5 ms thermal time constant of the detector, together with the noise equivalent power of 1
$\hbox{nW/Hz}^{1/2}$
, enables real-time imaging at 50 frames/s with a signal-to-noise ratio of 10 for an optical intensity of 30
$\mu\hbox{W/cm}^2$
.