A novel infrared microbolometer in standard CMOS-MEMS process

A novel infrared micro-bolometer realized in CMOS with MEMS post process is proposed. The micro-bolometer is constructed as a metal micro-cavity to enhance its absorptivity of incident infrared energy. Three testkeys with different cavity structure are presented. The measured sensitivity of the testkeys, in the temperature range of 5–75°C, are 9.56 Ω/°C, 8.78 Ω/°C and 9.89 Ω/°C, respectively. The micro-bolometer occupies a chip area of 439×370 µm
²
in 0.18 µm process. It is suitable for application on smart biomedical sensor.