Heimann Sensor Gmbh

Joerg Schieferdecker

Wilhelm Leneke

Marion Simon

Karlheinz Storck

Mischa Schulze

Bodo Forg

Frank Herrmann

A thermal infrared sensor is provided in a housing with optics and a chip with thermoelements on a membrane. The membrane spans a frame-shaped support body that is a good heat conductor, and the support body has vertical or approximately vertical walls. The thermopile sensor structure consists of a few long thermoelements per sensor cell. The thermoelements being arranged on connecting webs that connect together hot contacts on an absorber layer to cold contacts of the thermoelements. The membrane is suspended by one or more connecting webs and has, on both sides of the long thermoelements, narrow slits that separate the connecting webs from both the central region and also the support body. At least the central region is covered by the absorber layer.

Thermopile infrared sensor by monolithic silicon micromachining

A thermopile infrared sensor array, comprises a sensor chip with a number of thermopile sensor elements, made from a semiconductor substrate and corresponding electronic components. The sensor chip is mounted on a support circuit board and enclosed by a cap in which a lens is arranged. The aim is the production of a monolithic infrared sensor array with a high thermal resolution capacity with a small chip size and which may be economically produced. The aim is achieved by arranging a thin membrane made from non-conducting material on the semiconductor substrate of the sensor chip on which the thermopile sensor elements are located in an array. Under each thermopile sensor element, the back side of the membrane is uncovered in a honeycomb pattern by etching and the electronic components are arranged in the boundary region of the sensor chip. An individual pre-amplifier with a subsequent low-pass filter may be provided for each column and each row of sensor elements.

Thermopile infrared sensor array

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Dresden, Germany

Joerg Schieferdecker