Design of CMOS-MEMS infrared emitter arrays

This paper presents a new design of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor-microelectromechanical systems (CMOS-MEMS) infrared emitter arrays integrated with metamaterial absorbers (MA). The infrared emitter array is a key IR thermal radiation source for gas sensors. The IR emitter arrays are implemented using the standard CSMC 0.5 μm 2P3M CMOS process. Three different shape of micro emitters are designed with 2 different thin film layers stacks, without and with metamaterial absorbers, for each shape. Micro structures are released from Si substrate through the post-CMOS dielectric dry etching and bulk silicon wet etching. Read-in circuit is also integrated with each 8×8 scale emitter array. Steady state thermal responses and dynamic thermal responses are simulated through multi-physics coupling finite element method (FEM), then radiation responses are calculated with a Matlab program based on thermal responses. Emissivity of emitters are also calculated through FEM simulation, which shows that the integration of metamaterial absorbers is an effective way to increases emissivity in both short and long infrared wavebands.