Design of a vdf/trfe copolymer-on-silicon pyroelectric sensor

This paper presents the design of a Vinylidene Fluoride TriFluoroEthylene (VDF/TrFE) copolymer-on-silicon pyroelectric sensor. For an optimal design of a VDF/TrFE copolymer-on-silicon pyroelectric sensor, the one-dimensional diffusion equation is solved for the multilayer stricture. Output voltage and current of the sensor are calculated. Moreover, the current and voltage sensitivity of the 1 μm VDF/TrFE copolymer-on-silicon pyroelectric sensor has been measured. Improvement of the sensor can be obtained by: (a) etching the silicon substrate under the sensor element, and (b) an additional VDF/TrFE copolymer layer as thermal insulation. Different noise sources for a pyroelectric sensor have been calculated. It was found that dielectric noise dominates the noise. This conclusion has been verified by measured values. Noise equivalent power of 5 . 10 −7 W . Hz −1/2 has been achieved at 100 Hz.