IR imaging using a cantilever-based focal plane array fabricated by deep reactive ion etching technique

The authors report on a novel substrate-free cantilever-based focal plane array (FPA) fabricated by a deep reactive ion etching technique and discuss its performance as an uncooled infrared imager. A visible optical readout was designed to simultaneously measure the deflections of all the cantilevers in the FPA. The noise equivalent temperature difference (NETD) of our FPA can be reduced by 60% compared to the one fabricated by sacrificial layer technique and some cantilevers exhibited NETD of 375 mK, approaching the theoretical prediction of 89.7 mK. The FPA has a bending response to temperature of 86 nmK and a response time of 21 ms.