Non-thermally stabilized operation of a microbolometer for rapid turn-on

摘要

Microbolometers respond to variations in impinging infrared energy through changes in the temperature of their thermally isolated detector structure. Thus, variations in the temperature of the substrate give rise to erroneous detector output variations. In order to minimize these effects, microbolometers are thermally stabilized using Peltier-junction coolers or heaters and operated and calibrated at a single temperature set point. This method provides the lowest thermal fluctuation noise at the expense of power consumption, waste heat generation and power-up readiness times often measured in minutes. This paper discusses strategies for providing rapid system readiness through non-thermally stabilized operation over a broad temperature range. A commercially available thermal imaging module which produces analog or digital images within 300ms of power-up and operates without choppers, shutters or thermal stabilization has been demonstrated.