Investigation of silicon-on-insulator CMOS integrated thermocouple and heater for antenna-coupled bolometer

This paper presents the characterization of 0.6 m silicon-on-insulator CMOS processed integrated thermocouple-heater device for bolometer applications. Two different kinds of thermocouple with poly- and single-crystalline silicon wires have been fabricated and the performances were evaluated in terms of responsivity (Rv) and noise equivalent power (NEP). Relatively large responsivity of 336 V W−1 and small NEP of 162 pW Hz−1/2 were obtained from the electrical characterization of 100 m long device. The high Seebeck coefficient of 346 V K−1 and the reduced thermal conductivity of 27.3 W m−1 K−1 were obtained by the fabricated devices. Assuming the use in antenna-coupled bolometers to detect the wave at 1 THz, the thermocouple-heater device was adapted for a half-wave dipole antenna, and the performances were estimated and compared with those of other temperature sensors. Comparison revealed that the thermocouple-based bolometers showed competitive NEP and uniquely featured low power consumption.