Sensors and Actuators A 133 (2007) 6471

Design, simulation and validation of a novel

uncooled infrared focal plane array
Shali Shi
a
, Binbin Jiao
a
, Dapeng Chen
a,
, Chaobo Li
a
, Deyong Ding
b
, Yi Ou
a
,
Tianchun Ye
a
, Zhihui Duan
c
, Xiaoping Wu
c
, Qingchuan Zhang
c
a
Institute of Microelectronics of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
b
Beijing Information Technology Institute, Beijing 100088, China
c
University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
Received 31 October 2005; received in revised form 14 March 2006; accepted 22 March 2006
Available online 11 May 2006
Abstract
This paper describes a novel single-layer bi-material cantilever microstructure without silicon (Si) substrate for focal plane array (FPA) application
in uncooled optomechanical infrared imaging system (UOIIS). The UOIIS, responding to the radiate infrared (IR) source with spectral range from
8 to 14 m, may receive an IR image through visible optical readout method. The temperature distribution of the IR source could be obtained
by measuring the thermalmechanical rotation angle distribution of every pixel in the cantilever array, which is consisted of two materials with
mismatching thermal expansion coefcients. In order to obtain a high detection to the IR object, gold (Au) lm is coated alternately on silicon
nitride (SiN
x
) lm in the ection beams of the cantilevers. And a thermalmechanical model for such cantilever microstructure is proposed. The
thermal and thermalmechanical coupling eld characteristics of the cantilever array structure are optimized through numerical analysis method
and simulated by using the nite element simulation method. The thermalmechanical rotation angle simulated and thermalmechanical sensitivity
tested in the experiment are 2.459 10
3
and 3.322 10
4
rad/K, respectively, generally in good agreement with what the thermalmechanical
model and numerical analysis forecast, which offers an effective reference for FPA structure parameters design in UOIIS.
2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Cantilever; FPA; UOIIS; IR; Optical readout; Finite element
1. Introduction
Infrared (IR) imaging sensors have already been available
to military users for over two decades; their applications in the
industrial and civil sectors from remote sensing, re ghting to
biomedical diagnostics have steadily increased in recent years
[1].
As we known all objects in nature can radiate IR whose
wavelength have three peak spectrums such as 13, 35 and
814 m. IR detectors can be generally classied into two cat-
egories: photonic and thermal. The photonic devices require
cooling of the detector to 77 K to reduce the thermal noise. For
many military and most civil applications, however, high costs,

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 10 62007355/13910239846;

fax: +86 10 62055666.
E-mail address: dpchen@ime.ac.cn (D. Chen).
large weight and size of the additional cooling systems limit
their development and a clear requirement exists for a thermal
imaging technology offering reasonable performance at lowcost
in a compact lightweight easy-to-use package. The thermal IR
imaging detectors can meet the requirements mentioned above.
Traditionally, these two categories of IRdetectors all need a sig-
nal readout IC, and with the increasing of pixels, the cost and
the technology difculty of readout IC increase more rapidly.
Manalis et al. [2] presented micro-fresnel zone plate IRdetec-
tor with pixel size 96 m96 mand optical readout systemin
Stanford University in 1997, and proved an IR imaging detector
without readout IC by micro-machine structures. Mao et al. [3]
and Zhao et al. [4] reported focal plane array (FPA) composed
of the bi-material cantilevers anchored on the substrate, using
different optical readout parts in 1999 and in 2002, respectively.
Besides these, Datskos et al. [5] discussed performances of a
SiN
x
/Al microcantilever uncooled infrared detector with optical
readout by numerical method in Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
0924-4247/$ see front matter 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.sna.2006.03.034
S. Shi et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 133 (2007) 6471 65
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of uncooled optomechanical IR imaging system
(UOIIS).
Li [6] simulated performances of an uncooled double-cantilever
microbolometer with capacitive readout.
In this paper, a novel single-layer bi-material cantilever
microstructure for FPA application in uncooled optomechanical
infrared imaging system (UOIIS) will be discussed. The novel
microstructure is a new freestanding single-cantilever without
Si substrate, and its performances will be discussed by both
methods: numerical analysis and nite element simulation.
2. Principles of uncooled optomechanical IR imaging
system
The principle of IR imaging system based on opto-
mechanical effect is that the bi-material cantilevers bend after
absorbing infrared radiation; simultaneously an optical read-
out measures the deformations of every cantilever of FPA, and
projects a visible imaging result.
Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram of the uncooled optome-
chanical IR imaging system. This system consists of three
main parts: IR lens, FPA and optical readout. In the main
part FPA, each pixel is a cantilever microstructure containing
two bi-material ection beams. Two materials selected should
have a large mismatch in thermal expansion coefcients, which
will result in big deformation of the cantilever when absorb-
ing the incoming IR radiation. Besides, one of the materials
must fully absorb IR of 814 m spectral range, and the other
is a great reector in the visible spectrum for optical read-
out. Owing to these requirements, low-pressure chemical vapor
deposited (LPCVD) low-stress silicon nitride (SiN
x
) and gold
(Au) are selected in the bi-material cantilever structure. The
thermal expansion coefcients of SiN
x
and Au are 0.8 10
6
and 14.2 10
6
K
1
, respectively. Since the thermal conduc-
tivity of Au (296 W/(mK)) is much bigger than that of SiN
x
(5.5 W/(mK)), it is important to reduce the thermal loss and
obtain high thermal deformation of the structure. So in the
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the heat transfer model of pixel in FPA.
ection beams of cantilever Au lm is coated alternately on
SiN
x
lm. Compared with double-layers structure presented by
Zhao et al. [4], this novel design of single-layer microstructure
suspending on gridding frames greatly simplies its fabrica-
tion avoiding sacricial layer process. In addition, it increases
the thermalmechanical sensitivity and accordingly decreases
noise-equivalent temperature difference (NETD) of the whole
system compared to previous fabricated structure in our group
[7,8]. Subjected to some fabrication bottleneck in our previ-
ous fabricated structure, Au lm could but be coated wholly on
SiN
x
lm. Delightfully that bottleneck has been solved success-
fully by our group nowand the novel single-layer microstructure
design has practical signicance.
3. FPA design and physical characters
The thermal and mechanical properties of SiN
x
, Au and Si are
given in Table 1. The SiN
x
/Au cantilever layer thermally isolates
from the silicon supporting frames through the contacted SiN
x
layer with them. Fig. 2 shows the schematic diagram of the heat
transfer model of FPA. The heat transfer mechanisms between
the cantilever and environment can be categorized as: (i) the
heat conduction between the bi-material cantilevers and silicon
supporting frames through the supporting beams (legs); (ii) the
heat exchange between the bi-material cantilevers and environ-
ment by thermal radiation; (iii) the heat conduction between the
bi-material beams and silicon supporting frames through the air;
(iv) the heat convection of the bi-material cantilever with the air.
Table 1
Thermal and mechanical properties of SiN
x
, Au and Si
Material Density,
(10
3
kg/m
3
)
Youngs modulus, E
(GN/m
2
)
Thermal conductivity,
K (W/(mK))
Expansion coefcient,
(10
6
K
1
)
Heat capacity,
c (J/(kg K))
Emissivity,
(814 m)
SiN
x
2.40 180 5.5 0.5 0.8 691 0.8
Au 19.30 73 296 14.2 129 0.01
Si 2.33 100 135 2.6 700
66 S. Shi et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 133 (2007) 6471
Fig. 3. Part dimensions of pixel in FPA.
3.1. Thermal characters [4,9,10]
Fig. 3 shows the part dimensions of FPA that can be initially
determined under our fabrication abilities. The designed pixel
area is 200 m200 m, the supporting frame width 10 m,
the supporting beam width 3 m, the space adjacent to reec-
tion pad 3 m and other spaces 3 m. Supporting beam ection
number is n
*
.
The system is initially at ambient temperature T
a
, absorbing
IR incident ux q
s
, then the absorbed IR incident ux q
s
, the
temperature of the bi-material cantilevers T
c
will follow:
Vc
dT
c
dt
= G
Total
(T
c
T
a
) +q
s
(1)
where is the density of the material, V the volume of the lm,
c the heat capacity and G
Total
is the total thermal conductance of
the cantilever structure. The temperature change induced in the
microcantilever by a temperature change of a distant blackbody
source will follow [9]:
H =
T
c
T
s
=
1
G
Total
A
ab

4F
2
no
dL
dT
s
(2)
where A
ab
is the pixel IR absorption area; (=0.4) is the trans-
missivity of the IR optical system; is the total emissivity due
to a distant blackbody source (to human being, =0.98 at tem-
perature 300 K); F
no
(=0.7) is F number of the IR imaging lens;
the numerical value of dL/dT
s
in 814 m wavelength range for
a blackbody at temperature 300 K is 0.63 W/(m
2
Ksr).
It can be seen from Eq. (2) that the lower total thermal
conductance of the cantilever structure, the higher temperature
change of the cantilevers. The total thermal conductance of the
cantilever structure contains all the heat transfer mechanisms
mentioned above:
G
Total
= G
leg
+G
rad
+G
air,cov
+G
air,cond
(3)
There exist no vertical air gap between bi-material cantilevers
and Si substrate, and especially in vacuum [10] G
air, cond
is
neglectable compared with G
leg
and G
rad
; at vacuum pressure,
Fig. 4. Equivalent diagram of pixel in FPA.
heat convection of the bi-material cantilevers with the air is
much smaller than those at atmosphere pressure, so G
air, cov
is
neglected. Total thermal conductance of the cantilever structure
can be expressed as:
G
Total
= G
leg
+G
rad
(4)
The legs conductance can be expressed as:
G
leg
=

L
AK

SiN
x
,Au,i
+

L
AK

SiN
x
,
i

1
(5)
where A is the cross-sectional area of the leg, K the thermal
conductivity of the leg material and L is the length of the leg,
subscript i (=1 and 2) the two materials.
The radiative thermal conductance:
G
rad
= 4

A
SiN
x
,Au
(
SiN
x
+
Au
) +A
SiN
x

SiN
x

T
3
a
(6)
where A
SiN
x
,Au
and A
SiN
x
are the areas of SiN
x
/Au layer and
SiN
x
layer, respectively,
SiN
x
and
Au
are the emissivities,
respectively, the StefanBoltzmann constant (=5.67 10
8
W/(m
2
K)) and T
a
is the ambient room temperature (300 K).
3.2. Thermalmechanical characters [4,10] and FPA
dimension design
In order to make numerical analysis convenient, FPAin Fig. 3
can be equivalent to Fig. 4. In the bi-material structure parts, the
deection of the freestanding cantilever under the temperature
change meets the thermalmechanical equation:
d
dx
=
d
2
z
dx
2
= 6(
1

2
)

n +1
K

1
h
2

T(x) (7)
z = 0;
dz
dx
= 0 at x = 0
where (
1

2
) is the thermal expansion coefcient differ-
ence of Au and SiN
x
, K the structure parameter given as
K=4 +6n +4n
2
+n
3
+1/n, n the thickness ratio of Au and
S. Shi et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 133 (2007) 6471 67
Fig. 5. Detailed deformation of the cantilever structure.
SiN
x
lm (n =h
1
/h
2
), the Youngs modulus ratio of Au and
SiN
x
( =E
1
/E
2
).
Considering the thermal conductivity of Au (296 W/(mK))
is much bigger than that of SiN
x
(5.5 W/(mK)), assume that the
temperature distribution in the bi-material reection pad and
bi-material beams is uniform while in single-SiN
x
supporting
beams is linear.
T(x) =

x
L
SiN
x
T
c
(ml
SiN
x
+ml
SiN
x
,Au
x (m+1)l
SiN
x
+ml
SiN
x
,Au
; m = 0, 1, . . . , (n

1))
(m+1)l
SiN
x
L
SiN
x
T
c
((m+1)l
SiN
x
+ml
SiN
x
,Au
x (m+1)l
SiN
x
+(m+1)l
SiN
x
,Au
; m = 0, 1, . . . , (n

1))
T
c
(n

l
SiN
x
+n

l
SiN
x
,Au
x n

l
SiN
x
+n

l
SiN
x
,Au
+L
pad-y
)
(8)
where T
c
is the temperature change of reection pad, l
SiNx
and l
SiNx, Au
the length of each single-SiN
x
supporting beam
and bi-material supporting beam, respectively (see Fig. 4), n
*
the ection number and L
SiN
x
(= n

l
SiN
x
) is the whole length of
the single-SiN
x
supporting beam.
The detailed deformation of cantilever structure is showed
in Fig. 5. Single-SiN
x
beams without Au-coated above do not
deform, and keep staying in the tangential surface cross with the
end of deformed SiN
x
/Au beams.
The thermalmechanical sensitivity can be expressed using
the maximum thermalmechanical rotation angle as:
S

T
=

max
T
c
=

i=1

i
T
c
= 3(n

+1)(
1

2
)

n +1
h
2
K

l
SiN
x
,Au
(9)
It can be seen that the factors inuencing the thermal
mechanical sensitivity are many, such as the thermal expansion
coefcient difference of Au and SiN
x
, the thickness ratio of Au
lm and SiN
x
lm, the Youngs modulus ratio of Au and SiN
x
,
Fig. 6. Inuence of bi-material thickness ratio, n, to thermalmechanical sensi-
tivity, S

T
.
the thickness of SiN
x
lm, ection number n
*
and so on. When
those parameters except n are determined, S
T
(S

T
) (n +1)/K
(see Fig. 6). The cantilevers can get high thermalmechanical
sensitivity when 0.75 <n <0.95, but because of our fabrication
limit, n cannot be optimized; n is designed to be 0.3 to be dis-
cussed as follows.
First determine the thickness of SiN
x
lm. The penetration
depth within the SiN
x
lm for incident infrared radiation with
mean wavelength at
0
=10 m will be 0.8 m. Under the con-
sideration of the fabrication simplicity, SiN
x
lm intensity and
thermalmechanical sensitivity of the cantilever structure, the
SiN
x
lm thickness is designed to be 1 m. The Au lm thick-
ness is designed to be 0.3 m to the best of our fabrication
abilities.
From all detailed discussion above, n
*
is the last key param-
eter to be designed. n
*
is closely relative to some other
performances of the IR imaging system to be discussed as
follows.
3.2.1. n
*
parameter design
The ection number n
*
is important for synthetical perfor-
mances of the IR imaging system. It can inuence the thermal
image grey change induced by temperature change of the IR
source, which obey the law as follows:
I
T
S
=
I

T
C
T
C
T
S
= SH (10)
Table 2
Bi-material cantilever microstructure design parameters
Pixel area (m
2
) Infrared absorption
(reection) pad
area, A
pad
(m
2
)
Cantilever length,
L
leg
(m)
Cantilever
width, d (m)
SiN
x
thickness,
h
2
(m)
Au thickness,
h
1
(m)
200 200 16 184 2618 3 1 0.3
68 S. Shi et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 133 (2007) 6471
Fig. 7. HA
ab
/G
Total
; S

T
(n

+1); I/T
S
S

T
H. Inuence of ection
number n
*
to performances of IR imaging system.
where =I/ is optic detection sensitivity. It is a constant
when is small (see Fig. 13), so Eq. (10) can be expressed as:
I
T
S
=
I
max

max

max
T
C
T
C
T
S
= S

T
H (11)
where S

T
H is closely related to (n
*
+1)(A
ab
/G
Total
) (1 n
*
7).
Fig. 7 shows the inuence of ection number n
*
to the perfor-
mances of the IRimaging system. It can be seen fromFig. 7 that
the IR imaging system can get high pixel temperature change
when 5 n
*
7, and can obtain high thermalmechanical rota-
tion angle and high thermal image grey when n
*
=7. As long
as the visible light projecting onto FPA is enough strong, the
area of the reection pad does not matter. In our design n
*
is 7,
L
pad-y
184 m and the whole cantilever length L
leg
is 2618 m.
Table 2 shows the bi-material cantilever microstructure design
parameters.
From the discussion above, the legs conductance is calcu-
lated to be 2.348 10
8
W/K and the radiative thermal con-
ductance is 9.212 10
8
W/K. The total thermal conductance
of the cantilever structure is 1.156 10
7
W/K, which is lim-
ited near to the radiative thermal conductance. The lower total
thermal conductance can enhance the pixel temperature change
and cantilever thermal deformation under a certain IR absorp-
tion. It can be calculated that when the IR resource change
1 K, the pixel temperature change is 6.390 10
2
K, and when
FPA changes 1 K, the thermalmechanical rotation angle is
5.346 10
3
rad/K.
Fig. 8. Grid division of pixel in FPA.
Fig. 9. Temperature distribution of pixel in FPA.
The bi-material cantilever structure performances parameters
are showed in Table 3.
3.3. Finite element simulation
Basing on the data from Table 2, the thermal and thermal
mechanical characters are simulated using the nite element
simulation method. Considering the cantilever is very thin bi-
material microstructure, 3D four-nodes thermal shell element
and eight-nodes linear layered structural shell element are chose.
The thermal exchange between the two thin layers of SiN
x
and
Au is so small that thru-thickness thermal conduction can be
Table 3
Bi-material cantilever microstructure performance parameters
Legs conductance, G
leg
(W/K) Radiative thermal
conductance, G
rad
(W/K)
Thermal sensitivity of FPA, H Thermalmechanical
sensitivity of FPA, S

T
(rad/K)
2.348 10
8
9.212 10
8
6.390 10
2
5.346 10
3
S. Shi et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 133 (2007) 6471 69
Fig. 10. (a) Thermalmechanical rotation angle distributions under different n
*
values (2 n
*
7) and (b) graph of simulated thermal mechanical sensitivities (S

T
)
under different n
*
values (2 n
*
7).
ignored, so in four-nodes thermal shell element only in-plane
thermal conduction is considered. Eight-nodes linear layered
structural shell element is used for layered applications of a
shell model. It is used to calculate the structural deformation
under the thermal expansion.
Grid division is showed in Fig. 8. In area where stress may be
concentrated, grids are divided to be denser than those in other
areas to decrease the calculated errors.
When simulating the thermal characters, considering the
xed points of the supporting cantilever are connected with the
silicon frame, the temperature changes over there are dened to
be zero as the boundary conditions. IR heat ux is loaded to the
surface of the cantilevers, and the temperature distribution can
be obtained as showed in Fig. 9. It can be seen that the temper-
ature distribution basically accords with the theory assumption.
The temperature distributions in the bi-material reection pad
and bi-material beams is basically uniform while in single-SiN
x
supporting beams the temperature distribution is linear.
When simulating the thermalmechanical characters, consid-
ering the xed points of the supporting cantilever are connected
with the silicon frame, the displacements over there are dened
to be zero as the boundary conditions. Under different n
*
values
(2 n
*
7), the thermalmechanical rotation angle distribu-
tions under thermal expansion are showed in Fig. 10(a). It can
70 S. Shi et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 133 (2007) 6471
Fig. 11. Photographs of fabricated FPAs.
Fig. 12. Photographs of human hand (b) using FPA with two ection legs (a).
Table 4
Compare of performances of FPA (n
*
=2): calculated with tested
Thermal image grey
change, I/T
S
(grey/(mK))
a
Optic detection
sensitivity, =I/
(deg
1
)
a
Thermalmechanical
sensitivity of UOIIS,
S

T
H (rad/K)
a
Thermal sensitivity of
FPA, H
b
Thermalmechanical
sensitivity of FPA, S

T
(rad/K)
b
Thermalmechanical
sensitivity of UOIIS,
S

T
H (rad/K)
b
58.14 10034 3.322 10
4
5.110 10
2
2.005 10
3
1.025 10
4
a
Tested.
b
Calculated.
be seen that the rotation angle distribution are uniform in the
reection pad, which is the need for IR imaging system to get a
high-quality imaging result. Fig. 10(b) shows the graph of simu-
lated results, in which the maximum simulated rotation angle is
2.459 10
3
rad/K when n
*
=7, basically identical to what the
thermalmechanical model forecasts. It also can be seen that the
maximum thermalmechanical rotation angles linearly increase
with the increase of n
*
value, which is identical to what Fig. 7
displays.
4. FPA microfabrication and performances test
FPAs with above dimensions under different ection legs
(2 n
*
7) are fabricated. According to the fabrication results,
FPAs with from three to seven ection legs are distorted. For
example, it can be seen from Fig. 11(a and b) that ection legs
inter-touch, while FPA with two ection legs avoid distortion
(see Fig. 12(a)).
Fig. 13. Graph of grey change to FPA rotation angle change.
S. Shi et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 133 (2007) 6471 71
FPAs with optimized dimensions cannot be fabricated under
the existed experiment condition. The reason making the ec-
tion legs inter-touch may be the release of remainder stress
in SiN
x
/Au lm, which cannot be well controlled. Joyfully,
FPA with two ection legs is fabricated successfully, and an
image of human hand under 23.2

C background is obtained
(see Fig. 12(b)). The grey changes detected in CCD induced by
absorption of IRhuman hand is measured to be 58.14 grey/(mK).
The optic sensitivity ( =I/) measured is 10034 deg
1
(see
Fig. 13). Calculated performances of FPA with two ection legs
by using above thermalmechanical model and its tested perfor-
mances are summarized in Table 4.
5. Conclusion
It can be seen from the discussion above that the simulated
thermalmechanical angle 2.459 10
3
rad/Kby nite element
simulation method is basically identical to numerical analysis
result 5.346 10
3
rad/K from the thermalmechanical model.
The small difference in two values is mainly due to the errors
between every simulation shells which are used to simplify
the practical case. The thermalmechanical sensitivity tested
in the experiment is 3.322 10
4
rad/K, generally in good
agreement with what the thermalmechanical model forecast
(1.025 10
4
rad/K). Two validations improve the practicality
of the thermalmechanical model, which can offer an effective
reference for FPA structure parameters design in UOIIS.
The cantilever material chosen and structure dimensions are
directly inuence the thermal and thermalmechanical prop-
erties. In order to optimize the FPA structure, materials of
large mismatch in thermal expansion coefcients and low
thermal conductivities are chosen. Bigger IR absorption pad
and narrowerthinnerlonger supporting beams all together
can make higher cantilever temperature increment and bigger
thermalmechanical sensitivity.
Acknowledgement
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China
(no. 60576053).
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Biography
Shi Sha-li received the BS degree in applied physics from Wuhan University
(WHU), Wuhan, China, in 2002. She is currently working towards the PhD
degree in Micro-processing and Nano-technology Department at IME CAS.
Her research interests include design and fabrication of MEMS.