Sensitivity improved thermal infrared sensor cell applying the heat insulating phononic crystals

Naoki Tambo; Kouhei Takahashi; Kunihiko Nakamura; Yasuyuki Naito; Elizabeth Michiko Ashley; Peter J. Duda III; Paul F. Nealey; Masaki Fujikane

doi:10.1117/12.2585294

12 April 2021 Sensitivity improved thermal infrared sensor cell applying the heat insulating phononic crystals

Naoki Tambo, Kouhei Takahashi, Kunihiko Nakamura, Yasuyuki Naito, Elizabeth Michiko Ashley, Peter J. Duda III, Paul F. Nealey, Masaki Fujikane

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 11723, Image Sensing Technologies: Materials, Devices, Systems, and Applications VIII; 1172306 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2585294
Event: SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing, 2021, Online Only

Abstract

Improving heat insulation in microelectromechanical system based thermal-type infrared sensor is crucial to increase its performance. The concept of phonon engineering allows us to change material thermal conductivity by several orders of magnitudes, which can be a potential technique for thermal management of such microelectronic devices. Here, we introduced a phononic crystal structure in a prototype thermopile sensor to investigate the effectiveness of phonon engineering. We demonstrate that ultrafine phononic crystal structure, which was consisted of through-holes periodically arranged at 38 nm, resulted in ten-fold reduction in Si thermal conductivity. This led to improvement of the sensitivity of IR detection by a factor of ten. In addition, our phononic crystal could suppress thermal conductivity while maintaining the electrical conductivity, which enable us to increase the noise equivalent temperature difference by 5.6 times. The present study demonstrates great potential of phonon engineering for infrared sensor technology to reach for smaller pixel size and lower device cost.

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Naoki Tambo, Kouhei Takahashi, Kunihiko Nakamura, Yasuyuki Naito, Elizabeth Michiko Ashley, Peter J. Duda III, Paul F. Nealey, and Masaki Fujikane "Sensitivity improved thermal infrared sensor cell applying the heat insulating phononic crystals", Proc. SPIE 11723, Image Sensing Technologies: Materials, Devices, Systems, and Applications VIII, 1172306 (12 April 2021); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2585294

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