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Simple fabrication of an uncooled Al/SiO2 microcantilever IR detector based on bulk micromachining

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Abstract

A simple microfabrication process to make an uncooled aluminum/silicon dioxide bi-material microcantilever infrared (IR) detector using silicon bulk micromachining technology is presented in this work. This detector is based on high banding of the microcantilever due to the large dissimilar in thermal expansion coefficients between the two materials. It consists of a 1 μm SiO2 layer deposited by 200 nm thin Al layer. Since no sacrificial layer is used in this process, complexity related to releasing sacrificial layer is avoided. Moreover Al is protected in Si etchant using dual-doped tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide. The other advantage of this process is that only three masks are used with four photolithography process. Thermal and thermal mechanical behaviors of this structure are obtained using finite element analysis, and the maximum temperature and displacement at the end of cantilever at 100 pW/μm2 absorbed IR power density on top surface are 7.82°K and 1.924 μm, respectively.

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Abbreviations

FEA:

Finite element analysis

IR:

Infrared

TMAH:

Tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide

MEMS:

Micro electromechanical system

SEM:

Scanning electron microscope

CTE:

Thermal expansion coefficients

Al:

Aluminum

Au:

Gold

BOE:

Buffered hydrofluoric acid

Cr:

Chromium

DI:

De-ionized

HF:

Hydrofluoric acid

Si:

Silicon

SiNx :

Silicon nitride

SiO2 :

Silicon dioxide

A :

Cross-section area of leg

A ab :

IR absorbed area

L :

One of the folded lengths of leg

t 1 :

Thickness of Al layer

t 2 :

Thickness of SiO2 layer

T :

Element temperature

ΔT:

Temperature rise

ΔT s :

Blackbody target temperature change

G Total :

Total thermal conduction between the detector structure and the surroundings regain

G air :

Air thermal conductance

G rad :

Thermal radiative conductance

G leg :

Thermal leg’s conductance

V :

Volume of film

W s :

Absorbed IR power density

n :

Ratio of Al and SiO2 Young’s modulus

x :

Al and SiO2 thickness ratio

c :

Heat capacity

σ :

Stefan–Boltzmann constant

ρ :

Density of the material

ε Al :

Al emissivity

\(\varepsilon_{{SiO_{2} }}\) :

SiO 2 emissivity

k :

Thermal conductivity coefficient

η :

IR absorption efficiency

τ 0 :

Optical transmission efficiency

F :

f number of the optics

(dP/dT) λ1−λ2 :

IR target power emission rate per unit area within 8–14 μm wavelength range

α 1 :

CTE of Al layer

α 2 :

CTE of SiO2 layer

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

    Hassan Abdollahi & Hassan Hajghassem

  2. Nano-Electronic Center of Excellence, Nano-Electronic and Thin Film Laboratory, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Shams Mohajerzadeh

  3. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Shams Mohajerzadeh

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  1. Hassan Abdollahi
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  2. Hassan Hajghassem
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  3. Shams Mohajerzadeh
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Correspondence to Hassan Abdollahi.

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Abdollahi, H., Hajghassem, H. & Mohajerzadeh, S. Simple fabrication of an uncooled Al/SiO2 microcantilever IR detector based on bulk micromachining. Microsyst Technol 20, 387–396 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-013-1854-4

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