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:
Apr. 04, 2000
Filed:
Nov. 04, 1998
Marc C Foote, La Crescenta, CA (US);
Eric W Jones, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Thierry Caillat, Pasadena, CA (US);
Abstract
Linear arrays with up to 63 micromachined thermopile infrared detectors on silicon substrates have been constructed and tested. Each detector consists of a suspended silicon nitride membrane with 11 thermocouples of sputtered Bi--Te and Bi--Sb--Te thermoelectric elements films. At room temperature and under vacuum these detectors exhibit response times of 99 ms, zero frequency D* values of 1.4.times.10.sup.9 cmHz.sup.1/2 /W and responsivity values of 1100 V/W when viewing a 1000 K blackbody source. The only measured source of noise above 20 mHz is Johnson noise from the detector resistance. These results represent the best performance reported to date for an array of thermopile detectors. The arrays are well suited for uncooled dispersive point spectrometers. In another embodiment, also with Bi--Te and Bi--Sb--Te thermoelectric materials on micromachined silicon nitride membranes, detector arrays have been produced with D* values as high as 2.2.times.10.sup.9 cmHz.sup.1/2 /W for 83 ms response times.