Design and simulations of CMOS-SOI-NEMS thermal antenna and sensors for passive uncooled THz imaging

The paper presents design considerations of an innovative uncooled passive THz imaging sensor based on thermal antenna. The 2D imager pixel array, where each pixel size is of the order of the THz wavelength, provides the periodicity and constitutes a frequency selective surface tuned to the desired THz wavelength band. The uncooled passive THz sensors are implemented in cost-effective CMOS-SOI-NEMS technology. The focal plane array is first fabricated in a matured 0.18μm CMOS-SOI process. By applying NEMS post-processing using the CMOS metallization layers as built-in masks, nano-machined suspended directly-absorbing resistive antennas integrated with thermal sensors are obtained, thus achieving good thermal isolation as well as low thermal mass.