Non-Imaging Digital CMOS-SOI-MEMS Uncooled Passive Infra-Red Sensing Systems

This paper presents a novel non-imaging digital passive Infra-Red (PIR) sensing system using a CMOS-SOI-MEMS transistor as the thermal sensor, which replaces the traditional pyroelectric sensors and outperforms thermopiles. The mosaic sensors, which are manufactured by nano-fabrication methods in standard FABs, exhibit enhanced performance and robust manufacturing on wafer level processing and vacuum packaging. Mirror optics instead of Fresnel plastic lenses provides enhanced performance at low-cost. The essential aspects of the design of the mirrors for curtain sensors and presence sensors are presented. The overall measured performance for detecting human targets at extended ranges and hot spots detection are reported. The overall performance of the sensing systems indicate why they are most suitable for consumer electronics, including smart homes, wearables, Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile applications.