Amorphous silicon two-color microbolometer for uncooled IR detection

This paper describes the modeling and design of two-color microbolometers for uncooled infrared (IR) detection. The goal is to develop a high resolution IR detector array that can measure the actual temperature and color of an object based on two spectral wavelength regions. The microbolometer consists of high temperature amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin film layer held above the substrate by Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ bridge. A thin NiCr absorber with sheet resistance of 377 /spl Omega//sqr is used to enhance the optical absorption in the medium and long IR wavelength windows. A tunable micromachined Al-mirror was suspended underneath the detector. The mirror is switched between two positions by the application of an electrostatic voltage. The switching of the mirror between the two positions enables the creation of two wavelength response windows, 3-5 and 8-12 /spl mu/m. A comparison of the two response wavelength windows enables the determination of the actual temperature of a viewed scene obtained by an IR camera. The microbolometer is designed with a low thermal mass of 1.65/spl times/10/sup -9/ J/K and a low thermal conductance of 2.94/spl times/10/sup -7/ W/K to maximize the responsivity R/sub v/ to a value as high as 5.91/spl times/10/sup 4/ W/K and detectivity D/sup */ to a value as high as 2.34/spl times/10/sup 9/ cm Hz/sup 1/2//W at 30 Hz. The corresponding thermal time constant is equal to 5.62 ms. Hence, these detectors could be used for 30-Hz frame rate applications. The extrapolated noise equivalent temperature difference is 2.34 mK for the 8-12 /spl mu/m window and 23 mK for the 3-5 /spl mu/m window. The calculated absorption coefficients in the medium and long IR wavelength windows before color mixing are 66.7% and 83.7%. However, when the color signals are summed at the output channel, the average achieved absorption was 75%.     

Thickness-dependent leakage current of (polyvinylidene fluoride/lead titanate) pyroelectric detectors

The novel pyroelectric IR detectors have been fabricated using the Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF)/Lead Titanate (PT) pyroelectric bilayer thin films, which were deposited onto Pt(111)/SiO/sub 2//Si(100) substrates by a sol-gel process. The ceramic/polymer structure was constructed of the randomly oriented polycrystalline PT film (/spl sim/1 /spl mu/m) heated at 700/spl deg/C for 1 h and the /spl beta/-phase PVDF film crystallized at 65/spl deg/C for 2 h. The effects of PVDF thin film thickness (100 /spl sim/ 580 nm) on the pyroelectric response of IR detectors were studied. The results show that the depositions of PVDF thin films onto the PT films will cause the leakage current (J) of the detectors decrease from 6.37/spl times/10/sup -7/ A/cm/sup 2/ to 3.86/spl times/10/sup -7/ A/cm/sup 2/. The specific detectivity (D*) measured at 100 Hz decreased from 2.72/spl times/10/sup 7/ cm/spl middot/Hz/sup 1/2//W for detector without PVDF to 1.71/spl times/10/sup 7/ cm/spl middot/Hz/sup 1/2//W for detector with PVDF thickness of 580 nm. By optimizing the ratio of the specific detectivity (D*) to leakage current, D*/J, the detector with PVDF thickness of 295 nm exhibits the best performance.     

Enhanced catalytic activity of ultrathin CuO islands on SnO/sub 2/ films for fast response H/sub 2/S gas sensors

H/sub 2/S gas-sensing properties of a novel SnO/sub 2/-CuO structure consisting of ultrathin (/spl sim/10 nm) CuO dotted islands (600 /spl mu/m diameter) on 120-nm thick, sputtered SnO/sub 2/ film are compared with a pure SnO/sub 2/ and a SnO/sub 2/-CuO bilayer sensor. The SnO/sub 2/-CuO-dotted sensor exhibited a high sensitivity of 7.3/spl times/10/sup 3/ at a low operating temperature of 150/spl deg/C. A fast response time of 14 s for 20 ppm of H/sub 2/S gas and a recovery time of 118 s under flowing air have been measured. The electronic interaction due to modulation of the space charge regions between the distributed p-type CuO islands on the n-type SnO/sub 2/ thin-film surface and the presence of adsorbed oxygen on the SnO/sub 2/ support have been analyzed. Dissociated hydrogen available from the CuO-H/sub 2/S interaction spills over and its chemical interaction with the adsorbed oxygen on the SnO/sub 2/ surface is found to play a dominant role in the observed fast response characteristics.     

Distance measurement sensor with PIN-photodiode and bridge circuit

The presented integrated optical distance measurement sensor works on the time-of-flight principle. The distance information is obtained from the correlation of received light and the transmitted signal. The PIN-bridge circuit concept ensures suppression of background light by equally charging and discharging the capacitor within one period, while integrating the wanted signal. The advantages of the included PIN-photodiode are high bandwidth f/sub 3 dB/>1.35 GHz together with high responsivity R=0.36 A/W at 660 nm. A single distance measurement is performed in 2 ms. With averaging, an accuracy of better than 1% is achieved for distances up to 3.7 m. Effective pixel size is 250/spl times/200 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ having a fill-factor of /spl sim/16%. The sensor was manufactured in a 0.6-/spl mu/m BiCMOS process.     

Spin-transfer switching current distribution and reduction in magnetic tunneling junction-based structures

Spin transfer switching current distribution within a cell and switching current reduction were studied at room temperature for magnetic tunnel junction-based structures with resistance area product (RA) ranged from 10 to 30 /spl Omega/-/spl mu/m/sup 2/ and TMR of 15%-30%. These were patterned into current perpendicular to plane configured nanopillars having elliptical cross sections of area /spl sim/0.02 /spl mu/m/sup 2/. The width of the critical current distribution (sigma/average of distribution), measured using 30 ms current pulse, was found to be 3% for cells with thermal factor (KuV/k/sub B/T) of 65. An analytical expression for probability density function p(I/I/sub c0/) was derived considering a thermally activated spin transfer model, which supports the experimental observation that the thermal factor is the most significant parameter in determining the within-cell critical current distribution. Spin-transfer switching current reduction was investigated through enhancing effective spin polarization factor /spl eta//sub eff/ in magnetic tunnel junction-based dual spin filter (DSF) structures. The intrinsic switching current density (J/sub c0/) was estimated by extrapolating experimental data of critical current density (J/sub c/) versus pulse width (/spl tau/), to a pulse width of 1 ns. A reduction in intrinsic switching current density for a dual spin filter (DSF: Ta/PtMn/CoFe/Ru/CoFeB/Al2O3/CoFeB/spacer/CoFe/PtMn/Ta) was observed compared to single magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJ: Ta/PtMn/CoFe/Ru/CoFeB/Al2O3/CoFeB/Ta). J/sub c/ at /spl tau/ of 1 ns (/spl sim/J/sub c0/) for the MTJ and DSF samples were 7/spl times/10/sup 6/ and 2.2/spl times/10/sup 6/ A/cm/sup 2/, respectively, for identical free layers. Thus, a significant enhancement of the spin transfer switching efficiency is seen for DSF structure compared to the single MTJ case.     

A micromachined wide-bandwidth magnetic field sensor based on all-PMMA electron tunneling transducer

All-PMMA-based tunneling magnetic sensors were fabricated by hot embossing replication with silicon templates. The silicon templates had smooth surfaces, positive profiles, and pyramid-like pits with a high aspect ratio. With this fast (20 min), simple (one-step), and repeatable method, the all-PMMA tunneling sensor platform yielded sharp tunneling tips with 75 /spl mu/m in baseline and 50 /spl mu/m in depth. The sensors were assembled and fixed with measurement circuits, after their electrodes were patterned with modified photolithography and Co film was deposited with e-beam evaporation. A natural frequency response of 1.3 kHz was observed, and a tunneling barrier height of 0.713 eV was tested. Due to the quadratic relation between magnetic force and the field, the sensor field response (7.0/spl times/10/sup 6/ V/T/sup 2/) was also quadratic. The noise voltage at 1 kHz is 0.2 mV, corresponding to a magnet field of 0.46/spl times/10/sup -6/ T. The bandwidth of this sensor is 18 kHz. This new type of sensor platform is promising for the next generation of microsensing applications.     

Analysis and design of a CMOS angular velocity- and direction-selective rotation sensor with a retinal Processing circuit

This paper implements and analyzes a CMOS angular velocity- and direction-selective rotation sensor with a retinal processing circuit. The proposed rotation sensor has a polar structure and is selective of the angular velocity and direction (clockwise and counterclockwise) of the rotation of images. The correlation-based algorithm is adopted and each pixel in the rotation sensor is correlated with the pixel that is 45/spl deg/ apart. The angular velocity selectivity is enhanced by placing more than one pixel between two correlated pixels. The angular velocity selectivity is related to both the number and the positions of the edges in an image. Detailed analysis characterizes angular velocity selectivity for different edges. An experimental chip consisting 104 pixels, which form five concentric circles, is fabricated. The single pixel has an area of 91/spl times/84/spl mu/m/sup 2/ and a fill factor of 20%, whereas the area of the chip is 1812/spl times/1825/spl mu/m/sup 2/. The experimental results concerning the fabricated chip successfully verified the analyzed characteristics of angular velocity and direction selectivity. They showed that the detectable angular velocity and range of illumination of this rotation sensor are from 2.5/spl times/10/sup -3/ /spl pi//s to 40 /spl pi//s and from 0.91 lux to 366 lux, respectively.     

A versatile built-in CMOS sensing device for digital circuit parametric test

A versatile CMOS current sensing device is proposed as a built-in self-test (BIST) monitor for conventional digital I/sub DDQ/ power supply current test. A novel sensor topology is successfully employed in a current monitoring testing scheme. The sensor is implemented in two CMOS processes, 0.13 /spl mu/m and 0.18 /spl mu/m with 1.2-V and 1.8-V power supply, respectively. For verification purposes, performances of the 0.13-/spl mu/m design are investigated on several types of digital circuits: 64-bit RCA adder, 16-bit register, and inverter chain. Our analysis shows excellent detection capabilities of noncatastrophic short and open defects. Overall performance penalty and power supply degradation of the circuit under test are evaluated on 1.2-V 500-gate, 1000-gate, and 2000-gate asynchronous digital logic. Average power supply degradation of the 2000-gate logic tested at 20 MHz is recorded to be less than 0.6% which produced a 250-ps delay in the 100-gate critical path. The presented sensor is a scalable and practical embedded solution for high-frequency parametric I/sub DDQ/ test of standard CMOS digital circuits.     

CO-sensing properties of In/sub 2/O/sub 3/-doped SnO/sub 2/ thick-film sensors: effect of doping concentration and grain size

In/sub 2/O/sub 3/-doped SnO/sub 2/ nanoparticles were prepared using sol-gel technique from 0.1-M solutions of both stannic chloride (SnCl/sub 4/ 5H/sub 2/O) and indium nitrate. The doping concentration was varied from 7.718/spl times/10/sup -5/ to 3.859/spl times/10/sup -4/ moles. The average particle size, as measured from XRD, SEM, and TEM analyses, varies from 34-130 nm as a result of powder calcination at different temperatures ranging from 300/spl deg/C-900/spl deg/C. Thick-film samples with a thickness of /spl sim/15 /spl mu/m, were tested for low concentration (15-1000 ppm) of CO in air ambient. The optimal temperature for CO sensing is found to be 220/spl deg/C-240/spl deg/C. A blue shift in the sensing temperature and increase in sensitivity factor (S/sub f/) is observed with increasing doping concentration of indium oxide. Maximum sensitivity factor of /spl sim/5 is found for the highest doping concentration (3.859/spl times/10/sup -4/ moles) at 1000 ppm of CO concentration. The morphological and elemental studies of the film are carried out using SEM, TEM, XRD, and EDAX techniques. The results are discussed based on elemental analyses and available theories.     

Microbolometers on a flexible substrate for infrared detection

Uncooled semiconducting YBaCuO infrared microbolometers have been fabricated on a flexible polyimide substrate formed by spin-coating a silicon wafer with a release layer. The wafer was used as a carrier for the flexible substrate during fabrication. The finished microbolometers on the flexible substrate showed a temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) TCR =(1/R)(dR/dT) of -3.03% K/sup -1/, at room temperature, which is comparable to the TCR values observed for semiconducting YBaCuO microbolometers fabricated directly on Si. In order to provide protection and better mechanical integrity, some of the devices were encapsulated. The microbolometers attained a responsivity and detectivity as high as 3.5/spl times/10/sup 3/ V/W and 1/spl times/10/sup 7/ cm/spl middot/Hz/sup 1/2//W, respectively, at 2.88 /spl mu/A of current bias. The responsivity and detectivity of the encapsulated microbolometers, on the other hand, were 1.6/spl times/10/sup 3/ V/W and 4.9/spl times/10/sup 6/ cm/spl middot/Hz/sup 1/2//W, respectively at 1 /spl mu/A of current bias. Spin-coated liquid polyimide solved two major problems previously encountered with the solid polyimide sheets when used as a flexible substrate. First, flatness of the flexible substrate was maintained with no air bubbles. Second, the thermal expansion of the flexible substrate during the fabrication process due to thermal cycling was minimal. All measurements reported in this paper, were taken prior to releasing the flexible substrate from the Si wafer containing the finished microbolometers.     

A CMOS focal-plane motion sensor with BJT-based retinal smoothing network and modified correlation-based algorithm

This work presents and implements a CMOS real-time focal-plane motion sensor intended to detect the global motion, using the bipolar junction transistor (BJT)-based retinal smoothing network and the modified correlation-based algorithm. In the proposed design, the BJT-based retinal photoreceptor and smoothing network are adopted to acquire images and enhance the contrast of an image while the modified correlation-based algorithm is used in signal processing to determine the velocity and direction of the incident image. The deviations of the calculated velocity and direction for different image patterns are greatly reduced by averaging the correlated output over 16 frame-sampling periods. The proposed motion sensor includes a 32/spl times/32 pixel array with a pixel size of 100/spl times/100 /spl mu/m/sup 2/. The fill factor is 11.6% and the total chip area is 4200/spl times/4000 /spl mu/m/sup 2/. The DC power consumption is 120 mW at 5 V in the dark. Experimental results have successfully confirmed that the proposed motion sensor can work with different incident images and detect a velocity between 1 pixel/s and 140,000 pixels/s via controlling the frame-sampling period. The minimum detectable displacement in a frame-sampling period is 5 /spl mu/m. Consequently, the proposed high-performance new motion sensor can be applied to many real-time motion detection systems.     

Demagnetizing factors for rectangular prisms

For rectangular prisms of dimensions 2a/spl times/2b/spl times/2c with constant material susceptibility /spl chi/, we have calculated and tabulated the fluxmetric and magnetometric demagnetizing factors N/sub f/ and N/sub m/, defined along the 2c dimension as functions of c/(ab)/sup 1/2/(=1/spl sim/500), a/b(=1/spl sim/256), and /spl chi/(=0/spl sim/10/sup 9/). We introduce an interpolation technique for obtaining N/sub f,m/ with arbitrary values of c/(ab)/sup 1/2/, a/b, and /spl chi/.     

A 1.2-V 0.25-/spl mu/m clock output pixel architecture with wide dynamic range and self-offset cancellation

A 10T/pixel CMOS digital pixel sensor with clock count output, ultra low supply voltage, and wide dynamic range is presented. The pixel fabricated by a standard 0.25-/spl mu/m CMOS logic process comprises a reset transistor, a photo-diode, a comparator, and an inverter with pixel size of 9.4/spl times/9.4 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ and 24% fill factor. The amplified logarithmic output response similar to the light response of human eye is demonstrated in this work. The pixel can operate at a supply voltage as low as 1.2 V without affecting its output characteristics. The dynamic range of this cell limited by either the subsequent analog-to-digital circuit resolution or the rising and falling time of output clock is higher than 90 dB with an 8-bit resolution.     

CMOS pixels for subretinal implantable prothesis

This work reports on the design, fabrication, and characterization of CMOS pixels for subretinal implants, which seems to be an effective way to recover visual capabilities in some types of blindness. Two possible approaches are presented for CMOS pixel implementation: 1) an approach based on a light-controlled oscillator (LICOS) using a ring oscillator with an odd number of inverters and 2) an approach based on distributing a square signal at each pixel that filters out a number of pulses depending of the light intensity wave across the chip (WATCH). Both types of pixels fabricated in 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS demonstrate good mimic of the electrical behavior of human retina, with low-power consumption (typically 1 mW for a 14/spl times/14 matrix of pixels) and having small dimensions (75/spl times/78.5 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ for LICOS and 70/spl times/50 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ for WATCH), which make them suitable for practical implants. Experimental validation is reported on physiological solutions. Because of its characteristic, the proposed matrix of pixels could be considered as one of the first stand-alone highly integrated solutions for subretinal implant chips.     

Influence of spinel substrate and over-layer for enhanced SAW and AO properties with KNbO3 thin film

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) propagation characteristics have been studied using modeling calculations for a potassium niobate (KNbO/sub 3/) thin film-layered structure with [001] and [110] orientation on a single crystal spinel (MgAl/sub 2/O/sub 4/) substrate, and a spinel buffer layer on silicon. Variation in the electromechanical coupling and acoustic attenuation has been compared. A significantly high value of coupling factor (k/sub max//sup 2/=23%) is obtained for the [001]KNbO/sub 3//spinel structure by introducing an optimum thickness of spinel over-layer for potential wide bandwidth SAW device applications. The dispersion characteristics with the [110] KNbO/sub 3/ orientation indicate an initial peak in the coupling coefficient value (k/sub max//sup 2/=8.8%) at a relatively low KNbO/sub 3/ film thickness that appears attractive for fabricating devices with thinner films. The KNbO/sub 3/ film with [001] orientation is found attractive for efficient acousto-optic (AO) device application with the formation of a symmetric waveguide structure (spinel(0.5 /spl mu/m)/KNbO/sub 3/(1.0 /spl mu/m)/spinel). A high value of k/sup 2/=23.5% with 50% diffraction efficiency has been obtained for the spinel(0.5 /spl mu/m)/KNbO/sub 3/(1.0 /spl mu/m)/spinel structure at 1 GHz SAW frequency and 633 nm optical wavelength at a very low input drive power of 15.4 mW.     

A low-photocurrent CMOS retinal focal-plane sensor with a pseudo-BJT smoothing network and an adaptive current Schmitt trigger for scanner applications

In this work, a new structure of low-photocurrent CMOS retinal focal-plane sensor with pseudo-BJT smoothing network and adaptive current Schmitt trigger is proposed. The proposed structure is very simple and compact. This new circuit can easily be implemented in CMOS technology with a small chip area. Another innovation of this circuit is that the proposed circuit could be operated for low-induced current levels (pA), and the current hysteresis of the proposed current Schmitt trigger could be adjusted adaptively according to the value of induced photocurrents. In this work, the detection of static and moving objects, such as a moving white bar, are proven by projecting a pattern through HSPICE simulation. The proposed retinal focal-plane sensor includes a 32 /spl times/ 32 pixel array with a pixel size of 70 /spl times/ 70 /spl mu/m/sup 2/. The fill factor is 75% and the total chip area is 3000 /spl times/ 3030 /spl mu/m/sup 2/. It is with fully functional 32 /spl times/ 32 implementations consuming less than 8.8 /spl mu/W per pixel at 3.3 V. Measurement results show that the proposed new retinal focal-plane sensor has successfully been used in character recognition of scanner systems, such as pen scanners, etc.     

Optimal design of CMOS pseudoactive pixel sensor (PAPS) structure for low-dark-current and large-array-size imager applications

In this paper, a pixel structure called the optimal pseudoactive pixel sensor (OPAPS) is proposed and analyzed for the applications of CMOS imagers. The shared zero-biased-buffer in the pixel is used to suppress both dark current of photodiode and leakage current of pixel switches by keeping both biases of photodiode and parasitic pn junctions in the pixel bus at zero voltage or near zero voltage. The factor of photocurrent-to-dark-current ratio per pixel area (PDRPA) is defined to characterize the performance of the OPAPS structure. It is found that a zero-biased-buffer shared by four pixels can achieve the highest PDRPA. In addition, the column sampling circuits and output correlated double sampling circuits are also used to suppress fixed-pattern noise, clock feedthrough noise, and channel charge injection. An experimental chip of the proposed OPAPS CMOS imager with the format of 352/spl times/288 (CIF) has been designed and fabricated by using 0.25-/spl mu/m single-poly-five-level-metal (1P5M) N-well CMOS process. In the fabricated CMOS imager, one shared zero-biased-buffer is used for four pixels where the PDRPA is equal to 47.29 /spl mu/m/sup -2/. The fabricated OPAPS CMOS imager has a pixel size of 8.2/spl times/.2 /spl mu/m, fill factor of 42%, and chip size of 3630/spl times/3390 /spl mu/m. Moreover, the measured maximum frame rate is 30 frames/s and the dark current is 82 pA/cm/sup 2/. Additionally, the measured optical dynamic range is 65 dB. It is found that the proposed OPAPS structure has lower dark current and higher optical dynamic range as compared with the active pixel sensor (APS) and the conventional passive pixel sensor (PPS). Thus, the proposed OPAPS structure has high potential for the applications of high-quality and large-array-size CMOS imagers.     

Temperature of laser-cooled /sup 171/Yb/sup +/ ions and application to a microwave frequency standard

Microwave frequency standards based on buffer gas-cooled /sup 171/Yb/sup +/ ions have demonstrated high stability but are limited in accuracy by the second-order Doppler shift caused by thermal motion. We have previously obtained near shot noise-limited Ramsey fringes with a laser-cooled ion cloud. Here, we present measurements confirming that the ion temperature remains <1 K throughout the microwave interrogation period for a Ramsey pulse separation of up to 10 s and longer. The potential stability of the ions as a frequency standard is better than /spl sigma//sub y/ (/spl tau/)=5/spl times/10/sup -14/ /spl tau//sup -1/2/, and estimates of the systematic offsets to the clock frequency and their uncertainties indicate that a total uncertainty of four parts in 10/sup 15/ or better is achievable.     

Electric fields within cells as a function of membrane resistivity--a model study

Externally applied electric fields play an important role in many therapeutic modalities, but the fields they produce inside cells remain largely unknown. This study makes use of a three-dimensional model to determine the electric field that exists in the intracellular domain of a 10-/spl mu/m spherical cell exposed to an applied field of 100 V/cm. The transmembrane potential resulting from the applied field was also determined and its change was compared to those of the intracellular field. The intracellular field increased as the membrane resistance decreased over a wide range of values. The results showed that the intracellular electric field was about 1.1 mV/cm for R/sub m/ of 10 000 /spl Omega//spl middot/cm/sup 2/, increasing to about 111 mV/cm as R/sub m/ decreased to 100 /spl Omega//spl middot/cm/sup 2/. Over this range of R/sub m/ the transmembrane potential was nearly constant. The transmembrane potential declined only as R/sub m/ decreased below 1 /spl Omega//spl middot/cm/sup 2/. The simulation results suggest that intracellular electric field depends on R/sub m/ in its physiologic range, and may not be negligible in understanding some mechanisms of electric field-mediated therapies.     

A suspended membrane nanocalorimeter for ultralow volume bioanalysis

A nanocalorimetric suspended membrane sensor for pL volumes of aqueous media was fabricated by bulk silicon micromachining using anisotropic wet etching and photo and electron beam lithographic techniques. A high-temperature sensitivity of 125 /spl mu/K and a rapid unfiltered time constant of 12 ms have been achieved by integrating a miniaturized reaction vessel of 0.7-nL volume on a 800-nm-thick and 300/spl times/300- /spl mu/m/sup 2/-large silicon nitride membrane, thermally insulated from the surrounding bulk silicon. The combination of a ten-junction gold and nickel thermoelectric sensor with an integrated ultralow noise preamplifier has enabled the resolution of 15-nW power in a single measurement, a result confirmed by electrical calibration. The combination of a high sensitivity and rapid response time is a consequence of miniaturization. The choice of gold and nickel as sensor material provided the maximum thermal sensitivity in the context of ease of fabrication and cost. The nanocalorimetric sensor has the potential for integration in an ultralow-volume high-density array format for the characterization of processes in which there is an exchange of heat.