PSPICE circuit simulation of microbolometer infrared detectors with noise sources

In this paper, we present a method of incorporating various types of noise in circuit simulation of a microbolometer infrared detector to analyze the effect of noise on its performance. This ability of simulating electro-thermal performance of microbolometers in circuit simulation platform along with their noise performance allows designing of its suitable readout integrated circuit (ROIC). Being an electro-thermal device, a microbolometer has both the electrical and thermal components interacting with each other. Therefore, the noise sources existing in standard circuit simulators cannot predict the noise of a microbolometer correctly. Disturbances coming from the background radiation, device temperature fluctuations, flicker noise and the Johnson noise etc. contribute in the total noise of a microbolometer element. All these components of noise can be incorporated using the proposed simulation technique. The technique also allows modifying the frequency response of the noise in simulations as per the user defined noise spectrum, making it suitable for any type of microbolometer.