Fabricating microbolometer array on unplanar readout integrated circuit

In this paper, the integration of an experimental 32 X 32 uncooled IR microbolometer array with an unplanar CMOS Readout Integrated Circuit (ROIC) is presented. A vanadium oxide film fabricated by low temperature reactive ion beam sputtering is utilized as thermal-sensitive material in the bolometric detectors Before the integration, the unplanar ROIC for commercial use is first planarized by bisbenzocyclobutene film, then a electroless nickel-plating on ohmic contact areas is accomplished. Finally the bolometer array is fabricated using a micromachining process, which is completely compatible with CMOS technology Measurements and calculations for the as-fabricated samples show that the responsivity of 1.4 x 10(4) V/W and the detectivity of 2.1 X 10(8) cmHz(1/2)W(-1) and a thermal response time of 10 ms are obtained at a pulse bias of 1V.