Calculation of thermal parameters of SiGe microbolometers

TL;DR

This paper models the thermal parameters of SiGe microbolometers, achieving good agreement with experimental data and suggesting optimization strategies for sensitivity enhancement.

Contribution

It introduces a numerical modeling approach to calculate thermal parameters and proposes optimization methods for microbolometer sensitivity.

Findings

Thermal conduction ranges from 2x10^-7 to 7x10^-8 W/K.

Thermal response time ranges from 1.5 to 4.5 ms.

Optimization of geometry and boundary resistance improves sensitivity.

Abstract

The thermal parameters of a SiGe microbolometer were calculated using numerical modeling. The calculated thermal conduction and thermal response time are in good agreement with the values found experimentally and range between 2x10$^-7$ and 7x10$^-8$ W/K and 1.5 and 4.5 ms, respectively. High sensitivity of microbolometer is achieved due to optimization of the thermal response time and thermal conduction by fitting the geometry of supporting heat-removing legs or by selection of a suitable material providing boundary thermal resistance higher than 8x10$^-3$ cm$^2$K/W at the SiGe interface.