Investigation of Micro Pyroelectric Infrared Sensor Performance under Different Electrode Materials

The purpose of this paper is to use a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology to fabricate a human infrared sensor. The research explores the effects of changing the electrode materials on the human infrared sensor's performance. In terms of materials, double-sided polished glass is used as the chip substrate. The bottom electrodes are deposited using electron beam evaporation with chromium, copper, gold, platinum, and silver. Etching technique is used to define the lower electrode pattern. The sensing layer is created using an RF magnetron sputtering to deposit a ZnO thin film as the sensing material. The sensing layer's shapes are defined using etching technique. The top electrode is deposited using electron beam evaporation with the same materials as the bottom electrode, followed by the metal lift-off method to define the top electrode pattern. Experimental results show that using a silver top/bottom electrode achieves the highest response voltage.