Uncooled thermal imaging with thin-film ferroelectric detectors

Uncooled infrared imaging as a viable technology began in earnest when ferroelectric detectors based on bulk ceramic barium strontium titanate (BST) demonstrated NETDs less than 100mK at prices sufficiently low for commercial and consumer applications. Although the image quality generated by this technology remains unsurpassed, it has been largely supplanted by microbolometer technology, which is capable of being fabricated in substantially smaller pixel sizes, leading to smaller systems, and which is a monolithic device, resulting in a simpler fabrication process than the hybrid BST device.