Texas Instruments Corporation

Drs Rsta, Inc.

James E Robinson

Charles M Hanson

Howard R Beratan

James F Belcher

Robert A Owen

Steven N Frank

Robert J Kyle

Edward G Meissner

William K Walker

Dana Dudley

Gail D Shelton

Paul O Johnson

Pradip Mitra

John Marcel Dell

William M Knight, Jr

Kent McCormack

Charlie A Musca

Laurie Faraone

A tunable infrared detector is provided that includes a substrate, a bottom wavelength detector formed over the substrate, a top wavelength detector formed over the first wavelength detector layer, and an interferometer filter formed over the top wavelength detector layer and the bottom wavelength detector layer. The interferometer filter is operatively configured to pass a first wavelength associated with a first portion of a predetermined band and a second wavelength associated with a second portion of the predetermined band to the top wavelength detector. The top wavelength detector is operatively configured to detect each wavelength associated with the first portion of the predetermined band and to transmit each wavelength associated with the second portion of the predetermined band to the bottom wavelength detector. The bottom wavelength detector is operatively configured to detect each wavelength associated with the second portion of the predetermined band.

Spectrally tunable infrared image sensor having multi-band stacked detectors

A thermal detection system (10) includes a focal plane array (12), a thermal isolation structure (14), and an integrated circuit substrate (16). Focal plane array (12) includes thermal sensors (28), each having an associated thermal sensitive element (30). Thermal sensitive element (30) is coupled with one side to infrared absorber and common electrode assembly (36) and on the opposite side to an associated contact pad (20) disposed on the integrated circuit substrate (16). Reticulation kerfs (52a, 52b) separate adjacent thermal sensitive elements (30a, 30b, 30c) by a distance at least half the average width (44, 46) of a single thermal sensitive element (30a, 30b, 30c). A continuous, non-reticulated optical coating (38) may be disposed over thermal sensitive elements (30a, 30b, 30c) to maximize absorption of thermal radiation incident to focal plane array (12).

Method of fabricating focal plane array

A thermal imaging system (10) contains a focal plane array (14) including a plurality of thermal sensors (50) mounted on a substrate (52). The focal plane array (14) generates both a reference signal which represents the temperature of the substrate (52) and a biased signal corresponding to the total radiance emitted by a scene (11). Electronics (16) process the reference signal and the biased signal to obtain an unbiased signal representing radiance differences emitted by objects in the scene (11). A thermoelectric cooler/heater (38) may be provided to optimally adjust the temperature of the substrate (52) to improve overall image quality. Each thermal sensor (50) contains an electrode (66 and 68) that electrically couples the thermal sensor (50) to the substrate (52) and also allows the thermal sensor (50) to deflect, contact, and thermally shunt with the substrate (52).

Thermal imaging system with integrated thermal chopper

Thermal detector apparatus and method using reduced thermal capacity

A visible light and near infrared imaging device is disclosed. The imaging device comprises X-Y addressing means, an array of opto-electronic semiconductor elements or cells, a multiplexer, a precharge switch, and an amplifier. The X-Y addressing means selectively addresses each cell of the array of opto-electronic semiconductor cells and corresponding multiplexer switch for connecting a reference voltage to each cell to charge each element to the reference voltage, then to isolate each element and vary its voltage in proportion to the intensity of the impinging light, and finally to read out selectively the voltage of each element to the amplifier for amplifying the electrical signals representative of the light intensity to a working level for processing into video signals.

Visible light and near infrared imaging device

Growing community of inventors

Dallas, TX, United States of America

James E Robinson