A New Design of Microbolometer for Millimeter Wave Imaging System Based on Phase-change Material
by Shangyi Chen
A new class of millimeter wave imaging sensor using a phase-change material microbolometer is presented. In this approach, non-linear and large change in electrical resistivity of antenna-coupled vanadium dioxide (VO2) bolometer are exploited to achieve high responsivity, fast response time, and low noise equivalent power. Micro-electro-mechanical Systems microfabrication process is utilized to suspend the sensor in air to improve the thermal resistance. Therefore, overall performance of the sensor is enhanced. High responsivity of 6600 V/W and low noise equivalent power of 25 pW/√Hz are demonstrated by simulation results together with analytical calculations. In the near future, a pixilated array of the proposed sensor enables the realization of highly sensitive mmW camera for variety of sensing applications. This presentation discusses multi-physics simulation and device design.