IR microbolometer with self-supporting structure operating at room temperature

Microbolometers with 128-linear array utilizing VOx thin films as thermal sensitive material were fabricated using micromachining technology. In order to obtain thermosensitive material with high quality and low cost, a new deposition method of VOx thin film was described in this paper. The process of the new method was compatible with Si micromachining and CMOS technology, which was very important for monolithic integration with CMOS readout circuit. The responsivity and the detectivity of microbolometers were tested to be about 5 kV/W and 2 × 108 cm Hz1/2 W−1 at current bias of 100 μA, respectively.