MICROBOLOMETERS FABRICATED WITH SURFACE MICROMACHINING WITH a-Si-Ge: H THERMO-SENSING FILMS

In this work we present the process flow for the fabrication of un-cooled IR detectors employing surface micro-machining techniques over silicon substrates. These detectors are based on thin films deposited by plasma at low temperatures. The thermo sensing film used is an intrinsic a-Si_xGe_1-x:H film, which has demonstrated a very high temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR), and a moderated resistivity, these properties are better than those of the a-Si:H intrinsic film, which is commonly used in commercial IR devices. Two device configurations have been designed and fabricated, labeled planar and sandwich. The former is the configuration commonly used in commercial micro-bolometers, while the latter is proposed in order to reduce the high cell resistance observed in this kind of devices, without the necessity of doping the intrinsic film, which results in a decrement of the TCR and therefore in responsivity. Finally some performance characteristics of the devices studied are discussed in comparison with data reported in literature.