A highly sensitive bolometer structure with an electrostatic-actuated signal bridge

Abstract

A novel bolometer structure has been proposed to achieve high detectivity. The detectivity is inversely proportional to the thermal conductance, of a bolometer, and most of the thermal conductance is due to a metal wire, the placement of which is necessary for the reading of a signal. However, the thermal conductance of the proposed bolometer was unaffected by the thermal conductance of a metal wire. This is because a movable signal bridge was employed to lower the thermal conductance, thereby yielding a thermal conductance of 4.13 x 10(-8) W/K. A measured detectivity of up to 4.23 x 10(9) cm . Hz(1/2)/W was attained at room temperature.