Infrared Physics & Technology 122 (2022) 104078

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Infrared Physics and Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/infrared

Design, preparation and characterization of a double-ended symmetric

MEMS thermopile with adiabatic grooves
Yihao Guan a, Cheng Lei a, *, Ting Liang a, *, Yuehang Bai a, Xuezhan Wu a, Jijun Xiong a, Kai Yin b
a
State Key Laboratory of Dynamic Measurement Technology, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China
b
Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg 9220, Denmark

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Microelectro mechanical systems (MEMS) infrared Thermopile is the core working device of modern information
Thermopile detection systems such as spectrometer, gas sensor, remote temperature sensor, etc. Higher surface utilization
Adiabatic groove and responsiveness as well as easier preparation process will be the future development trend of this kind of
Double-ended symmetrical arrangement
device manufacturing technology. In this paper, we propose a double-ended symmetrical arrangement of ther­
Cold-end design
MEMS
mopile structure, by eliminating the independent infrared absorption area, extending the hot end placement of
thermocouple strip, expanding the cold end ohmic contact area, adding adiabatic grooves and other designs to
optimize the temperature difference distribution of the thermopile, The test results show that the optimized
double-ended symmetric MEMS thermopile with adiabatic grooves has a responsivity of 23.205 V/W, a detection
rate of 1.01 × 108 cm*Hz^(1/2)/W, and a response time of 27.06 ms. The expansion of the cold-end ohmic
contact zone and adiabatic grooves improve the device response by 25.1%, which provides ideas for further
optimization of the design of future MEMS infrared thermopiles.

1. Introduce
All objects as long as the temperature is higher than absolute zero
will emit infrared radiation, therefore, in the natural temperature of all
objects are infrared radiation emission source, but the object itself
temperature is different, infrared radiation of infrared wavelengths are
different.An infrared sensor is a type of sensor that senses infrared ra­
diation from a target and uses the physical properties of infrared light to
perform measurements[1].Infrared sensors are mainly divided into two
kinds of photonic detectors and thermal detectors.Photon type detector
absorbs photons, the carrier concentration changes and thus causes a
change in electrical properties to indirectly test infrared radiation,
which is more responsive in normal operation, but requires cooling and
is costly.Thermal detectors are the result of changes in the temperature
of a material caused by the thermal effect of infrared radiation, resulting
in a change in the potential or resistance of the material due to changes
in its internal electron distribution[2].It is widely studied and applied
because of the advantages of wide spectral response range, uncooled,
low cost and simple operation of thermal detectors.
The thermopile infrared detector studied in this paper is a kind of
thermal detector, based on the Seebeck effect, i.e., two conductor
materials with different fugitive work are connected in series to form a
group of thermocouples, and the two ends are in different temperature
fields so that the carriers move in the direction of decreasing tempera­
ture to produce a potential difference[3].Compared to other thermal
detectors, thermoelectric stack infrared detectors have the advantage
that they do not require chopping, do not need to add bias voltage and
the output signal is less affected by the outside world.Infrared thermo­
pile detectors are mainly divided into closed film structures, cantilever
beam structures, and suspended structures.Cantilever beam structure
and suspension structure of thermopiles have high thermal resistance
and long time constants, but they are extremely difficult to process, have
little mechanical strength, and are highly susceptible to damage.Closed
film structure of thermopile with low thermal resistance, low response
rate, short response time, low cost and easy batch processing[4].
Generally, scholars solve the problem of low responsiveness through the
arrangement of electric couples and materials in the absorption area.
In 2020, Chen-Chen Zhang of North University of China designed a
MEMS thermopile infrared detector with a high absorption-thermal
conductivity film structure, and the performance was improved by
introducing low thermally conductive insulating silicon nitride material
into the hot end through the design of the thermal conductivity structure

* Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: leicheng@nuc.edu.cn (C. Lei), liangtingnuc@163.com (T. Liang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infrared.2022.104078
Received 6 January 2022; Received in revised form 8 February 2022; Accepted 9 February 2022
Available online 12 February 2022
1350-4495/© 2022 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Y. Guan et al. Infrared Physics and Technology 122 (2022) 104078

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the thermopile infrared detector.

to reduce the intermediate process of heat transfer, while the detector difference (ΔU), and the thermal response voltage can be expressed as
performance was further improved by 20% through the integration of [9]:
nano-forest structure[5].Ting-Wei Shen designed an umbrella-shaped
ΔU = NTdiff αAB (1)
absorber embedded in the thermocouple’s suspension beam by a strut,
which achieves a better heat flow path and increases the temperature
Where N refers to the logarithm of the thermocouple strip,Tdiff is the
difference between the hot and cold junction[6].Wenjian Ke in 2018
temperature difference between the hot and cold ends, and αAB is the
presented a CMOS-compatible thermopile infrared detector with self-
difference between the Seebeck coefficients of two different thermo­
measurement based on xenon difluoride frontal dry etching, using
couple materials.
heavily doped nitrogen-phosphorus polysilicon to form a thermocouple,
The responsivity is also a key parameter for the performance of
using xenon difluoride frontal isotropic etching for release and thermal
thermopile detectors and can be calculated from the potential difference
isolation to obtain better performance[7].However, these infrared sen­
and the IR radiated power [10,11]:
sors are relatively complex in design and process, which are not
conducive to low-cost and low-difficulty preparation. RV =
ΔU
=
ΔU
(2)
In this paper, we propose a thermopile structure based on a double- P0 ϕ0 Ad
end beam arrangement, using a support film structure and opening
adiabatic grooves parallel to the thermocouple strip direction on both where P0 is the infrared emissivity, Ad is the absorption area of the de­
sides perpendicular to the thermocouple strip, in order to improve the vice, and ϕ0 is the infrared radiation power density, which is generally
temperature difference by transferring temperature only along the di­ expressed as [12,13]:
rection parallel to the thermocouple strip.In addition, the cold end ( )
σε1 T14 − T04 AS
ohmic contact is expanded, and after preparing the thermocouple strip ϕ0 = (3)
πd20
structure, the absorption area was eliminated and Si3N4 was deposited
on the entire surface, acting as both a passivation layer and an absorp­ where Cr is the root-mean-square conversion factor, σ is the Stephen
tion layer to improve performance while ensuring the advantages of Boltzmann constant, ε1 is the emissivity of the blackbody,As refers to the
high duty cycle, low cost, and easy processing. area of the blackbody, d0 is the distance from the blackbody to the de­
tector surface, T1 is the blackbody temperature, and T0 is the ambient
2. Principle of operation temperature.
The specific detection rate, also known as the Normalized Detectiv­
As shown in Fig. 1,The design uses a membrane suspension structure ity, can indicate the detection capability of a detector and is generally
with thermocouples arranged symmetrically on both sides; adds adia­ defined as [4]:
batic grooves to the structure and eliminates the infrared absorption √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
area, makes the hot ends on both sides elongate toward the center, RV Ad Δf
D∗ = (4)
which increases the temperature difference and increases the output Un
potential.When the thermoelectric infrared detector absorbss external
radiation, the temperature of endnear the center rises, while the other where Rv is the responsivity, Δf is the test bandwidth, which is generally
end on the substrate remains at room temperature, resulting in a tem­ taken as 1 Hz, and Johnson noise Un is the noise voltage of the IR sensor,
perature difference, which, according to the Seebeck effect, causes the which can be expressed as [3]:
carriers in the conductor material to move and gather at the lower √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
Un = 4kR0 T0 Δf (5)
temperature end, resulting in a potential difference[8].In order to meet
the requirements design needs to consider some important parameters, Finally, the response time is also an important parameter indicator of
such as output potential, responsivity, detectivity and response time. the sensor. It is generally expressed as [14]:
When external infrared radiation is irradiated on the detector sur­
Cth
face, the temperature of the thermal junction near the central axis in­ τ= (6)
Gth
creases and a temperature difference (Tdiff) is formed between the hot
and cold ends, and according to the Seebeck effect, it forms a potential where Cth and Gth are the total heat capacity and total thermal

2
Y. Guan et al.
Fig. 2. Optical performance test of different film layers.(a) Schematic diagram of the structure of the L1 sample. (b) Schematic diagram of the structure of the L2
sample. (c) Reflectance test results for LI and L2 samples. (d) Absorbance treatment results for LI and L2 .
conductance of the thermopile detector, respectively.
3. Design and optimization of devices
3.1. Design of thermopile absorption area
In general, the thermopile consists of a silicon substrate, support
layers, thermocouple strips, passivation layers and absorption zones
[15].The general thermopile structure is protected by coating SiO2 as
passivation, preparing Si3N4 film or other absorber materials in the
designed absorber region, and additionally sputtering metals at the cold
end to obtain other materials to act as reflector layers, which cause
additional costs.It was found that silicon nitride film is a dielectric film
with very good physical and chemical properties, with high densities,
high dielectric constants, good insulating properties and excellent
resistance to Na+, etc. It can generally be used as passivation protection
film, insulating layer and diffusion mask; in addition, silicon nitride film
has good infrared absorption capability and can generally be used as an
infrared absorber layer [16].After the finite element simulation study,
we found that the temperature difference of the device is proportional to
the area of the absorption zone, and the output is maximum almost when
the area of the absorption zone is the same as the size of the cavity.
Therefore, we consider eliminating the absorption region and
depositing a layer of silicon nitride on the entire upper surface of the
device. The entire surface is both passivated and protected for IR ab­
sorption.However, the actual situation of the cavity above the Si3N4
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Infrared Physics and Technology 122 (2022) 104078
absorbs radiation temperature rise, and the Si3N4 above the silicon
substrate also absorbs radiation, but most of its heat with the loss of the
substrate, which is equivalent to only the cavity surface of the silicon
nitride region is an effective absorption area. That is, the absorption area
is equal to the cavity area.
3.2. Design of the cold end
According to Equation (1) , increasing the temperature difference
between the cold and hot ends can effectively improve the response
electrical signal of the thermopile detector.The above deposited Si3N4
on the entire surface, and although most of the heat absorbed at the cold
end of the surface is lost with the substrate, there is still a very small
amount of temperature, which affects our performance to some extent.
To improve the detector output performance, a layer of metal is
generally sputtered on the cold end of the thermocouple strip to act as a
cold-end reflection layer, but the cost is higher as a result.
We conducted a study for improving the reflection effect at the cold
end. Since metal films have constant reflectivity for a wide range of
wavelengths, we prepared separate samples of the same film layer at the
cold end of the class hot end and tested their reflectivity(100% - trans­
mittance - absorbance = reflectance),(Sample L1: Si3N4 film; L2: sput­
tering a layer of Al in the middle of Si3N4 film)as shown in Fig. 2. The
reflectivity of silicon nitride, which has an extremely thin aluminum
layer in the middle, is much higher than that of Si3N4 film.
In this study, we choose Al as one of the thermocouple materials, the
Y. Guan et al. Infrared Physics and Technology 122 (2022) 104078

Infrared reflection 3.3. Thermopile structure design

Infrared
absorption The designed infrared thermopile strip is arranged in a double-ended
symmetric structure, which has a higher duty cycle compared to the
conventional four-ended structure.As opposed to the conventional
double-ended beam structure shown in Fig. 4(a), where the hot end is
(a) (b) connected to the absorption zone,While the new double-ended beam
infrared thermopile sensor designed in Fig. 4(b) has both hot ends
Ohmic contact area
extended toward the centerline to achieve higher temperature differ­
ence.In addition, we further optimize the double-ended arrangement of
Al infrared thermopile sensors as shown in Fig. 4(c),prepare adiabatic
Al grooves (which parallel to the thermocouple strips) on both edges of the
vertical thermocouple strip direction in the suspension film,This is used
polySi to interrupt the decreasing trend of temperature in the thermopile
(c) (d) structure shown in 4(b) in the direction perpendicular to the thermo­
couple strip, ensuring that the temperature difference causes the carriers
in the thermocouple strip to move in the exact same direction as the
Silicon Al Si3N4
temperature gradient.And the entire device is covered with a flat layer of
Fig. 3. Cold End Expanded Ohmic Contact Design and Reflection Mechanism. silicon nitride on the electrocouple strip, which acts both as a passiv­
(a) Optimised cold end reflection mechanism.(b) Conventional cold end ation layer and as an absorber.
reflection mechanism.(c) Physical view of optimised cold end.(d) Physical view We build the model by modeling software and use the finite element
of conventional cold end. analysis software ANSYS for simulation analysis.Due to the symmetrical
arrangement of the double-ended infrared thermopile sensor, we use 1/
cold end of the thermocouple strip under conventional circumstances 2 of the sensor structure involved to reduce the modeling as well as
just need to be connected and piggybacked on the silicon substrate, but simulation difficulties.In order to make the comparison more
the reflection performance per unit area near the cold end in this case is convincing, the same radiated power density, cold end body silicon
general; we will keep the effective length of the thermocouple strip temperature, and zero potential of the output of the aluminum con­
unchanged, and extend the cold end ohmic contact to the bezel to in­ nected in the sensor 1/2 structure are imposed in the simulation anal­
crease, as shown in Fig. 3, to increase the area of metallic aluminum in ysis; Other than that, the effect of air heat conduction is ignored.We first
the cold end ohmic contact area, at this time the reflection per unit area pass set a diameter 128 mm black body, black body temperature set to
near the cold end This greatly increases the reflection per unit area near 500 K, emissivity set to 1; at a distance of 3 cm from the black decent
the cold end and reduces the absorption, which largely reduces the placed and the chip the same size body, through face-to-face radiation
temperature at the cold end and effectively improves the performance, heat transfer simulation to obtain the distance from the black body 3 cm
without adding additional process steps besides. heat flux, 491.47 W/m2, and then use the thermoelectric module to
design the thermopile model for thermoelectric coupling simulation, the
surface applied in its The heat flux (radiated power density) applied to

Wmem Wmem Wmem

Wa2

Si

SiO 2

SiNx
Wmem La2 La2

P-PolySi

AL

Adiabatic grooves

Lc2 Lc2 Lc2

Wa2/2 L1 L2 L2
Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 1=Zone 2 Zone 1=Zone 2

a b c
Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of different structures of double-ended symmetric thermopiles.

4
Y. Guan et al. Infrared Physics and Technology 122 (2022) 104078

Fig. 5. Comparison of temperature distribution clouds for sensors with and without adiabatic grooves.

Table 1 (a) (e)

Comparison of simulation results of thermopile detectors before and after
optimization.
Parameter Unit With Without
adiabatic grooves adiabatic grooves

Average temperature difference ℃ 3.15444 2.58932

Simulated Voltage mV 16.864 13.557 (b) (f)

its surface is set to 491.47 W/m2, the cold end temperature is set to
25 ◦ C (the applied surface is selected as the bottom surface of the silicon
bezel), the electrode potential connected to aluminium in the sensor 1/2
structure is set to 0 V and the electrode potential connected to poly­
(c) (g)
silicon is the output voltage of the sensor 1/2 structure.
As Fig. 5 simulation results show the temperature distribution of the
two designs with and without slotting and the temperature at the hot
end.The simulation results show that the closed film (without adiabatic
grooves) has a higher temperature the closer it is to the center, and the
heat is transferred from the center to the surroundings.Only part of the (d) (h)
hot end is at the highest temperature point, and the temperature is not
completely transferred to the cold end of the sensor in the direction of
the thermocouple strip, which makes the average temperature of the hot
end of the thermocouple strip has room for improvement.According to
the Seebeck effect, the carriers in the thermocouple flow from high to
low temperatures, resulting in a potential difference, while the tem­
perature gradient is orthogonal to the direction of carrier movement, the
temperature difference is not at its maximum, which will make the
Si Poly-Si SiO 2 Al Si3N4
thermoelectric efficiency greatly reduced, in addition to the thermo­
couple strip and the temperature gradient orthogonal to the heat ca­ Fig. 6. Thermopile processing flow. (a) Preparation of composite support film
pacity, thermal conductivity will also increase, resulting in the impact of layer and polysilicon. (b) Etching to obtain polysilicon thermocouple strips. (c)
time.We prepare adiabatic grooves on both edges perpendicular to the Deposition of metallic aluminum. (d) Preparation of aluminum thermocouple
thermocouple strip direction, and the adiabatic grooves are kept parallel strips. (e) Deposition of silicon nitride film layer for passivation absorption
to the thermocouple strip, which makes the central temperature transfer layer. (f) Etching to expose the pads. (g) Etching to prepare adiabatic grooves.
along the thermocouple strip direction to the cold end, and the carrier (h) Deep silicon etching to release the adiabatic film.
motion direction is exactly the same as the temperature gradient, and at
this time all the hot ends remain consistent and are at the highest tem­ 4. Preparation of devices
perature, and the average temperature is greatly increased, further
increasing the temperature difference and thus the response voltage.The The micromachining process of an infrared thermopile detector with
simulation results are shown in Table 1. The average temperature dif­ adiabatic grooves is shown in Fig. 6.Since the SiO2 films prepared by
ference of the double-ended symmetrically arranged thermopile with thermal oxidation process and the Si3N4 films prepared by LPCVD have
adiabatic grooves is about 3.15444 ◦ C, which is 1.22 times higher than better densities and lower stresses.And Si3N4 possesses excellent IR ab­
that of the structure without adiabatic grooves (2.58932 ◦ C). The output sorption capability.In addition, the SiO2 prepared by thermal oxidation
voltage of the 1/2 sensor structure with the introduction of the adiabatic has compressive stress and the Si3N4 has tensile stress. By adjusting the
slot is 8.432 mV, which is 1.24 times higher than that of the structure thickness of SiO2 and Si3N4, stress compensation is formed to obtain a
without adiabatic grooves.Therefore, for the whole detector structure, lower stress composite film layer.As shown in Fig. 6(a), 1600 nm silicon
the output voltage of the structure without adiabatic grooves should be oxide is prepared sequentially on the wafer surface by thermal oxygen,
13.557 mV and the output voltage of the structure with adiabatic 5500 Å silicon nitride and polysilicon by LPCVD process, where silicon
grooves should be 16.864 mV under the above loading conditions. oxide and silicon nitride act as support layers and polysilicon films are
thermocouple strip materials with a thickness of 8000 Å, doped with B

5
Y. Guan et al. Infrared Physics and Technology 122 (2022) 104078

Fig. 7. Shape of the prepared thermopile device and local enlargement.(a)Thermopile Sensor.(b) Adiabatic groove . (c) Optimised cold end. (d) General cold end.

Fig. 8. Thermopile infrared detector with TO package.

elements at a doping dose of 1 × 1016 cm− 2 and annealed to form P-
polySi.The polycrystalline silicon film is photolithographed and etched
to form the P-polySi thermocouple strips structure as shown in Fig. 6(b).
Afterwards, a layer of metallic aluminum is sputtered and subjected
to an IBE etching process to form an aluminum strip, which is used as
another thermocouple strip material, connected in series with P-polySi
and annealed in alloy by Rapid Thermal Processing Furnace(RTP)to
form ohmic contact(as shown in Fig. 6 (c-d)).SiNxhas both better IR
absorption and passivation protection.The most critical thing is that two
grooves parallel to the thermocouple strip direction are etched on both
sides perpendicular to the thermocouple strip, as in Fig. 6(g), to slow
down or even stop the central temperature increment in the direction of
the perpendicular thermocouple strip.The adiabatic cavity is formed by
deep silicon etching through DRIE as in Fig. 6(h).The SEM of the
fabricated thermopile device is shown in Fig. 7. Fig. 7(a) shows the IR
sensor with adiabatic grooves structure, Fig. 7(b) shows an enlarged
micrograph of the adiabatic grooves, Fig. 7(c) shows the optimized cold
end with expanded ohmic contact, and Fig. 7(c) shows the conventional
cold end without optimization.

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Y. Guan et al. Infrared Physics and Technology 122 (2022) 104078

(a)
Black Body Enclosed space
3cm Signal Collector
Blackbody

Water
cooling

Data Processing
(b)
Black Body Chopper
12cm Lock-in amplifier
Blackbody

Water coolingg

(c) Black Body Rotary table

Signal Collector
12cm

Blackbody

Water cooling

Fig. 9. Test system. (a) responsivity test system. (b) Dynamic response time test system. (c) Field-of-view test system.

5. Measurement and characterization
The prepared thermopile IR detector is TO-46 encapsulated in ni­
trogen environment with a long wavelength filter to reduce the effect of
heat loss due to gas conduction, and Fig. 8 shows the thermopile IR
detector after TO encapsulation.In order to accurately characterize the
reactivity of the prepared thermopile infrared detector, we first set up a
reactivity measurement device as shown in Fig. 9(a). The reactivity
measurement device mainly consists of a blackbody, a packaged ther­
mopile detector, a signal collector, etc.
5.1. I-V characteristic curve
The I-V characteristic curves of the detector were obtained by the
semiconductor analyzer, and the resistance values of the devices were
157.96 kΩ, 155.67 kΩ, 154.31 kΩ, respectively, as shown in Fig. 10.This
is within the process redundancy range and further verification shows
that increasing the ohmic contact at the cold end has no effect on the
resistance value(A: Thermopiles with adiabatic grooves and expanded
cold end ohmic contact area, B: Thermopiles with expanded cold end
ohmic contact area only, C: Reference thermopiles without adiabatic
grooves and unexpanded cold end ohmic contact area).
5.2. Static response test
We hold the thermopile detectors in a closed space at 3 cm from the
radiation surface of the blackbody and record the output signals of
different thermopile detectors through a signal collector.The output
voltages of the optimized thermopile with adiabatic grooves and larger
ohmic contact area at the cold end, the thermopile with larger ohmic

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Y. Guan et al.
Fig. 10. I-V characteristic curves of three thermopile detectors.
Table 2
Basic performance of thermopile detectors before and after optimization.
Parameter Unit A B C
Electrical resistance kΩ 157.96 155.67 154.31
Response Voltage mV 12.892 10.596 10.304
（3cm）
Responsivity V/W 23.205 19.072 18.546
Specific detectivity 108cm*Hz^(1/2)/W 1.01 0.827 0.805
Noise voltage nV/Hz^1/2 50.988 50.617 50.395
contact area at the cold end only, and the reference thermopile are
12.892 mV, 10.596 mV, and 10.304 mV, respectively.The respositivity
are 23.205 V/W, 19.072 V/W and 18.546 V/W, respectively.These three
thermopiles have almost identical noise levels because of the consistent
design of their thermocouple structures.The detection rates of the pro­
posed optimized thermopile and reference thermopile are 1.01 ×
108cm*Hz^(1/2)/W and 0.827 × 108cm*Hz^(1/2)/W and 0.805 ×
108cm*Hz^(1/2)/W, respectively, by theoretical calculations.Test re­
sults show that the design with adiabatic grooves and increased ohmic
contact area at the cold end can effectively improve the performance of
micromechanical infrared thermopile detector.The expanded ohmic
contact at the cold end increases the voltage output by 2.8%, and the one
with adiabatic grooves increases the voltage output by 21.7%, The use of
both a cold end with an expanded ohmic contact area and adiabatic
grooves in the thermopile increases output by 25.1%.The basic perfor­
mance parameters of these three structures of thermopile detectors are
shown in Table 2.(A: Thermopiles with adiabatic grooves and expanded
cold end ohmic contact area, B: Thermopiles with expanded cold end
ohmic contact area only, C: Reference thermopiles without adiabatic
grooves and unexpanded cold end ohmic contact area).
Although the actual prepared thermopile detector achieved some
improvement in voltage response after testing,This still deviates some­
what from the theoretical values that we have shown in our design
simulations that the output voltage can be increased with adiabatic
grooves.The reason may be due to our design simulation, the adiabatic
groove opening default completely cut off the heat transfer, ignoring the
thermal convection of air in the package shell and the radiation con­
sumption generated by the hot end position of the diaphragm to both
sides of the heat sink.However, the actual use of nitrogen encapsulation,
after the detector surface receives external radiation, in addition to heat
conduction in the form of heat transfer from the hot end to the cold end
along the parallel direction of the thermocouple strip, there is also heat
convection and heat loss caused by radiation from the hot end on the
diaphragm near the location of the adiabatic slot to the nearby heat sink,
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Infrared Physics and Technology 122 (2022) 104078
Fig. 11. V-T characteristic curves.
thus making the temperature difference and voltage output is not as
large as the degree in the theoretical simulation.
5.3. V-T Test
To measure the response relationship of the prepared thermopile
detector to temperature, we vary the blackbody temperature in steps of
5 ◦ C under the test system in Fig. 9(a), read the response voltage through
the data collector and plot the V-T curve, i.e., the sensitivity output
curve, as shown in Fig. 11,This further indicates that performance has
been optimized.
5.4. Response time
To measure the response time of the infrared thermopile detector of
the micromechanical system, we added an optical chopper with a
controller to the test system, as shown in Fig. 9(b), placed between the
radiating blackbody and the infrared detector, and the thermopile de­
tector output was recorded by a semiconductor analyzer.The blackbody
radiation temperature is set to 500 k, the chopper is between the
blackbody radiation surface and the thermopile detector, so the ther­
mopile detector is moved back from the blackbody radiation surface to
12 cm, and the chopper chopping frequency is controlled at 5 Hz. the test
results are shown in Fig. 12.
After the lock-in amplifier-related settings, the output waveform is
filtered and amplified, and the waveform is analyzed by numerical
analysis software.When the chopper through a certain frequency of
blackbody radiation chopping, so that the radiation cycle of the detector
surface changes, the detector in the process of absorption of radiation
and removal of radiation, the detector internal thermoelectric changes,
through the light - heat - electricity in the form of transformation of
energy conversion, when the detector voltage output to reach a steady
state of 63% of the time required is the response time of the detector.
Fig. 9 shows the response voltage waveform of the thermopile infrared
detector after phase-locked amplification, the waveform is only used to
observe the time constant of the voltage output after the detector re­
ceives radiation, and the response voltage at 12 cm cannot be read
directly.Fig. 12 (b), 12 (d) and 12 (f) are the enlarged waveform curves
of the rising edge of Fig. 12 (a), 12 (c) and 12 (e) respectively.The results
show that the response times of MEMS infrared detectors tested by
chopper test system are 27.06 ms, 25.93 ms and 28.64 ms respectively.In
addition, we measured the voltage of the detector at 12 cm alone
without chopper and lock-in amplifier.As shown in Table 3, it can be
seen that the voltage output of the thermopile detector with adiabatic
grooves still maintains the highest response, which is essentially the
Y. Guan et al. Infrared Physics and Technology 122 (2022) 104078

Fig. 12. The waveform of test result after adding chopper. (a) Optimized thermopile detector A(with adiabatic grooves and expanded cold end ohmic contact area)
response voltage curve. (b) The rising edge of the optimized thermopile detector A. (c) Response voltage curve of the electric stack detector B with only the cold end
ohmic contact area expanded. (d) The rising edge of the thermopile detector B that expands only the cold end ohmic contact area. (e) Response voltage curve of the
reference thermopile detector C. (f) The rising edge of the reference thermopile detector C.

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Y. Guan et al.
Table 3
Dynamic performance of thermopile detectors before and after optimization.
Parameter Unit A B C In this paper, we design, prepare and characterize a double-ended
Response Voltage（12 cm） mV 10.801 8.994 7.989
Time Constant ms 27.06 25.93 28.64
Fig. 13. Field of view test.
same trend as the test results at 3 cm above, which is primarily due to the
introduction of adiabatic grooves that allow the temperature to decrease
only in the direction of the thermocouple strip, with a larger average
temperature difference.
The response time of the optimized thermopile detector is longer
than that of the detector without adiabatic grooves.According to Equa­
tion (6), the response time of the thermopile detector is related to the
thermal capacity and thermal conductivity of the device.Both thermo­
pile detectors are designed with the same film layer and thermocouple
layout, and they have essentially the same thermal capacity.The adia­
batic groove makes the thermal resistance of the contact between the
suspended film and the silicon heat sink increase, the structural thermal
conductivity decreases, and the response time is inversely proportional
to the thermal conductivity, thus the response time is relatively delayed
a little.The expanded ohmic contact area at the cold end leads to a
further reduction in response time, which is due to the fact that the
expanded ohmic contact is located entirely on the substrate, ensuring
greater thermal conductivity, less thermal resistance of the thermo­
couple strip in contact with the substrate, and therefore a smaller
response time.
5.5. Field of view test
In addition, we use the system shown in Fig. 7 (C) for the field of view
test of the three thermopiles, the rotary table is fixed at 12 cm in front of
the black body, and the angle between the thermopiles and the radiation
surface is changed by rotation, and record the output voltage until the
output voltage is 50% of the peak voltage, and the output voltage cor­
responding to different angles is normalized to obtain the field of view
test curve as shown in Fig. 13.
The test results show that the design with adiabatic grooves has
basically no effect on the field of view of the infrared detector, while the
cold end of the expanded ohmic contact, the rotating thermopile makes
the amount of radiation greatly reduced, when the cold end of the
reflection of foreign trace radiation has a greater impact, so as to obtain
a higher temperature difference and electric potential difference, with a
well field of view.In addition to this, larger package housings such as
TO-39 and filters can be used to enhance the field of view.
10
Infrared Physics and Technology 122 (2022) 104078
6. Conclusion
symmetrical arrangement of thermopile infrared detectors with adia­
batic grooves.The independent absorption area is eliminated, and silicon
nitride is deposited on the entire surface as a passivated absorption
layer.Thermocouple strips are arranged in a double-ended symmetrical
arrangement,The hot end is extended to the extreme center of the dia­
phragm (where the temperature is highest) to improve the average
temperature difference and response output.In addition, we further
optimized the reference thermopile by expanding the ohmic contact
area at the cold end and preparing adiabatic grooves on both sides
perpendicular to the thermocouple strip (the adiabatic grooves are
completely parallel to the thermocouple strip) to further increase the
temperature difference and achieve a higher response.The test results
shows that the response voltage of the thermopile detector after
expanding the ohmic contact area at the cold end and introducing the
adiabatic bath has increased by 25.1% relative to the reference ther­
mopile.The responsivity and detection rate are also improved, and the
optimized thermopile detector has a responsivity of 23.205 V/W and a
detection rate of 1.01 × 108 cm*Hz^(1/2)/W.The adiabatic groove
makes the thermal conductivity decrease and thus makes the response
time increase, but the degree of increase is almost negligible; mean­
while, expanding the cold end ohmic contact can expand the field of
view to a certain extent.In addition, the thermopile can be further
improved by reducing the device size through a double-layer design or
by a larger package.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Funding
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foun­
dation of China under Grant 51935011, Innovative Research Group
Project of National Science Foundation of China 51821003, and Fund for
Shanxi “1331 Project” Key Subject Construction.
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