Fabricating Microbolometer Array on Unplanar Readout Integrated Circuit

In this paper, the integration of an experimental 32 × 32 uncooled IR microbolometer array with an unplanar CMOS Readout Integrated Circuit (ROIC) is presented. A vanadium oxide film fabricated by low temperature reactive ion beam sputtering is utilized as thermal-sensitive material in the bolometric detectors Before the integration, the unplanar ROIC for commercial use is first planarized by bisbenzocyclobutene film, then a electroless nickel-plating on ohmic contact areas is accomplished. Finally the bolometer array is fabricated using a micromachining process, which is completely compatible with CMOS technology. Measurements and calculations for the as-fabricated samples show that the responsivity of 1.4 × 104 V/W and the detectivity of 2.1 × 108cmHz1/2W−1 and a thermal response time of 10ms are obtained at a pulse bias of IV.