Semiconducting Y-Ba-Cu-O Infrared Microbolometer Array Fabricated and Characterized with CCBDI ROIC

Semiconducting Yttrium Barium Copper Oxide (Y-Ba-Cu-O) microbolometers based on self-supporting structure are fabricated and characterized with on-chip constant current buffered direct injection (CCBDI) readout integrated circuit (ROIC) in AMI 1.5 mum double-poly-double-metal n-well 2.5 V complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. Self-supporting Y-Ba-Cu-O microbolometers exhibit low thermal mass, hence low thermal time constant, and are integrated with a silicon readout circuit for first time. The CCBDI readout circuit is designed to work both with a traditional frame rate of 30 Hz as well as a novel, improved frame rate of 200 Hz for a 640 times 480 array for faster thermal imaging in commercial, military and biomedical applications.