Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Comp. Ltd.

Mohamed Boutchich

Benoit Bataillou

An IR sensor comprises a heat sink substrate () having portions () of relatively high thermal conductivity and portions () of relatively low thermal conductivity and a planar thermocouple layer () having a hot junction () and a cold junction (), with the hot junction () located on a portion () of the heat sink substrate with relatively low thermal conductivity. A low thermal conductivity dielectric layer () is provided over the thermocouple layer (), and has a via () leading to the hot junction (). An IR reflector layer () covers the low thermal conductivity dielectric layer () and the side walls of the via (). An IR absorber () is within the via. This structure forms a planar IR microsensor which uses a structured substrate and a dielectric layer to avoid the need for any specific packaging. This design provides a higher sensitivity by providing a focus on the thermocouple, and also gives better immunity to gas conduction and convection.

Planar thermopile infrared microsensor

Non-volatile memories can have data retention problems at high temperatures reducing the reliability of such devices. A non-volatile memory cell is described having a magnet, a ferromagnetic switching element and heating means. The non-volatile memory cell has a set position having a low resistance state and a reset position having a high resistance state. The non-volatile memory is set by applying a magnetic field to the switching element causing it to move to the set position. The non-volatile memory cell is reset by the heating means which causes the switching element to return to the reset position. The switching element is formed from a ferromagnetic material or a ferromagnetic shape memory alloy. This structure can have improved reliability at higher temperatures than previously described non-volatile memories.

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Evin Malmaison, France

Mohamed Boutchich