Parameter Analysis of Pyroelectric and Thermopile Detectors

Thermal Infrared energy is emitted from all the objects that have temperature greater than the absolute zero and could be used as a parameter to distinguish energy variation in the desired path. Superior qualities of thermal infrared detectors like wide wavelength response, no cooling requirement, high temperature stability, high signal to noise ratio and low cost makes them more suitable in instrumentation and consumer products. Choice of suitable thermal detectors will be based on thermo-electric properties like Responsivity, Noise and Detectivity. In this paper, theoretical background of the infrared detectors and thermoelectric properties of the thermal detectors are discussed. The features of thermopile detectors are compared with pyroelectric detector.