Research on sensitivity characteristic of indirectly-heated type thermopile power sensor

The relationship of the sensitivity characteristic of the indirectly-heated type thermopile power sensor with the distance between the resistor and the thermopile is researched in this reported work. The sensors are designed and fabricated using the GaAs MMIC process with zero DC power consumption. The sensors are measured in the frequency up to 30 GHz within 100 mW range. The sensitivity at 10 GHz is about 0.12, 0.13, 0.12, 0.10, 0.09 and 0.08 mV/mW when the distance is set to 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 and 40 m, respectively. The key significance of this work is that the relationship of the sensitivity characteristic with the distance is re-understood and researched quantitatively.