The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 14, 1999
Filed:
Oct. 27, 1997
Jonathan M Mooney, Winchester, MA (US);
James E Murguia, Hollis, NH (US);
Prabha K Tedrow, Lexington, MA (US);
Abstract
A new kind of thermal detector and thermal imager for infrared radiation. A thermal detector/imager is a device for detecting/imaging in the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This produces a video image, where the video brightness is a function of the incident power. The new thermal imager consists of a thermionic thermal detector having: a substrate having a thermal insulating gap; and a reverse biased CoSi.sub.2 diode suspended over the thermal insulating gap of the substrate and which senses temperature of thermionic emission by producing an output signal with a current that changes exponentially with temperature changes. The substrate is a silicon on insulator (SOI) wafer which has said thermal insulating gap on its top surface; an oxide insulator layer that covers the top surface of the thick silicon support layer, including the thermal insulating gap; and support legs placed on the top surface of the oxide insulator layer. The support legs support the reverse biased CoSi.sub.2 diode in place.