CMOS Compatible Thermopile Infrared Sensor with 64X64 Array

A CMOS compatible thermopile infrared sensor is fabricated with large sensing array (64X64) and small pixel size (70μm pitch). The design and simulation of the sensor confirms a wide temperature sensing range (up to 1200°C), which is appropriate for temperature detection in industrial manufacturing and human body. To improve the sensing performance, an innovative pixel structure is developed for increasing the infrared absorption, decreasing the thermal time constant, and improving the thermal isolation. The sensor is fixed for dead pixels and corrected by the NUC (non-uniformity correction) process to improve the thermal image quality. The procedure for temperature calibration between blackbody target and sensor output voltage is also described. The test results show that this newly developed thermopile infrared sensor has temperature measuring error smaller than 3%.