In the case of a thermal imaging system to which a uncooled infrared detector is applied, the application range is expanding in various ways in the field of military and civilian use. In particular, in the case of a military thermal system, it is requ...
In the case of a thermal imaging system to which a uncooled infrared detector is applied, the application range is expanding in various ways in the field of military and civilian use. In particular, in the case of a military thermal system, it is required to develop a high-resolution infrared sensor to upgrade the system, and in the case of a civil thermal system, it is required to miniaturize and lighten the thermal detector to apply to various applications. By reducing the pixel pitch of infrared sensors from 17um pitch to 8um pitch size, it is easy to develop miniaturized and high-resolution sensors, but overcoming the problem of decreasing infrared sensor performance is the key to technology development. The structural separation of an area absorbing incident infrared rays and an area for thermal isolation is required to maximize the performance of an infrared sensor with a reduced pixel pitch, and to implement this, it is required to develop a multi-layered microbolometer. In this paper, we develop an SXGA-class (1280*1024) uncooled infrared detector with an 8um pixel pitch and fabricate using multilayered FPA(focal plane array) design techniques and 0.18um 3D MEMS technology design techniques to improve absorption area and thermal isolation reduction as the pitch decreases. For miniaturization and weight reduction of infrared detectors, ceramic packages were applied to manufacture uncooled infrared detectors of NETD 50 mK or less. In addition, environmental and reliability test evaluation of uncooled infrared detectors was performed to verify system applicability and practicality.