A CMOS Compatible Pyroelectric Mid-Infrared Detector Based on Aluminium Nitride

• Published in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 19; no. 11; p. 2513
• Main Authors: Ranacher, Christian, Consani, Cristina, Tortschanoff, Andreas, Rauter, Lukas, Holzmann, Dominik, Fleury, Clement, Stocker, Gerald, Fant, Andrea, Schaunig, Herbert, Irsigler, Peter, Grille, Thomas, Jakoby, Bernhard
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 31.05.2019; MDPI
• Subjects: Absorption; Aluminum nitride; CMOS; Conflicts of interest; Decoupling; Gases; Infrared detectors; Microelectromechanical systems; mid-infrared detector; Photonics; pyroelectric detector; Sensors; silicon photonics; Thin films; United States > US; Austria; silicon photonics; pyroelectric detector; mid-infrared detector
• ISSN: 1424-8220; 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/s19112513

The detection of infrared radiation is of great interest for a wide range of applications, such as absorption sensing in the infrared spectral range. In this work, we present a CMOS compatible pyroelectric detector which was devised as a mid-infrared detector, comprising aluminium nitride (AlN) as the pyroelectric material and fabricated using semiconductor mass fabrication processes. To ensure thermal decoupling of the detector, the detectors are realized on a Si N /SiO membrane. The detectors have been tested at a wavelength close to the CO absorption region in the mid-infrared. Devices with various detector and membrane sizes were fabricated and the influence of these dimensions on the performance was investigated. The noise equivalent power of the first demonstrator devices connected to a readout circuit was measured to be as low as 5 . 3 × 10 - 9 W / Hz .