An example objective of the present invention is to provide a bolometer capable of reducing its manufacturing cost. A bolometer according to an example aspect of the present invention includes: a substrate; and an infrared detection unit comprising a bolometer film, wherein the infrared detection unit is held on the substrate with a gap therebetween by a supporting unit, wherein the bolometer film is a carbon nanotube film includes semiconducting carbon nanotubes in an amount of 67% by mass or more of the total amount of carbon nanotubes, and the thickness of the carbon nanotube film is in the range of 10 nm to 1 μm, and the density of the carbon nanotube film is 0.3 g/cm.sup.3 or more.

In accordance with heat received from a target object, a visible light absorption element 10 changes a frequency component of visible light to reflect or transmit. The visible light absorption element 10 possesses a resonance frequency included in a visible light frequency region. The visible light absorption element 10 absorbs visible light of the resonance frequency. The visible light absorption element 10 thermally deforms due to temperature change to thereby change the resonance frequency, and absorbs visible light of the changed resonance frequency.

An infrared thermal sensor for detecting infrared radiation, comprising a substrate and a cap structure together forming a sealed cavity, the cavity comprising a gas at a predefined pressure; a membrane arranged in said cavity for receiving infrared radiation; a plurality of beams for suspending the membrane; a plurality of thermocouples for measuring a temperature difference between the membrane and the substrate; wherein the ratio of the thermal resistance between the membrane and the substrate through the thermocouples, and the thermal resistance between the membrane and the substrate through the beams and through the gas is a value in the range of 0.8 to 1.2. A method of designing such a sensor, and a method of producing such a sensor is also disclosed.

The present disclosure is a infrared sensor capable of being integrated into a IR focal plane array. It includes of a CMOS based readout circuit with preamplification, noise filtering, and row/column address control. Using either a microbolometer device structure with either a thermal sensing element of vanadium oxide or amorphous silicon, a nanocomposite is fabricated on top of either of these materials comprising aligned or unaligned carbon nanotube films with IR trans missive layer of silicon nitride followed by one to five monolayers of graphene. These layers are connected in series minimizing the noise sources and enhancing the NEDT of each film. The resulting IR sensor is capable of NEDT of less than 1 mK. The wavelength response is from 2 to 12 microns. The approach is low cost using a process that takes advantage of the economies of scale of wafer level CMOS.

An infrared sensor is formed in such a manner that an infrared receiver and a base substrate are spaced with a beam made of a thin-film phononic crystal in which through holes are arranged periodically. The beam made of a phononic crystal is formed in such a manner that a period P of through holes increases at arbitrary intervals in a direction from the infrared receiver toward the base substrate.

A Method for producing a microsystem (1) with pixels includes: producing a thermal silicon oxide layer on the surface of a silicon wafer as a base layer (5) by oxidation of the silicon wafer; producing a silicon oxide thin layer on the base layer as a carrier layer (6)by thermal deposition; producing a platinum layer on the carrier layer by thermal deposition, whereby an intermediate product is produced; cooling the intermediate product to room temperature; pixel-like structuring of the platinum layer by removing surplus areas of the platinum layer, whereby bottom electrodes (8, 12) of the pixels (7, 8) are formed in pixel shape on the carrier layer in remaining areas; removing material on the side of the silicon wafer facing away from the base layer, so a frame (3) remains and a membrane (4) formed by the base layer and the carrier layer is spanned by the frame.

Passive detector structures for imaging systems are provided which implement unpowered, passive front-end detector structures with direct-to-digital measurement data output for detecting incident photonic radiation in various portions (e.g., thermal (IR), near IR, UV and visible light) of the electromagnetic spectrum.

An apparatus is provided for nanoantenna-enhanced detection of infrared radiation. The apparatus includes one or more detector pixels. A plurality of detector pixels can constitute a focal plane array (FPA). Each detector pixel carries at least a first and a second subpattern of nanoantenna elements, with elements of the second subpattern interpolated between elements of the first subpattern. Each detector pixel also includes separate collection electrodes for collecting photogenerated current from the respective subpatterns.

A high-performance Microbolometer that incorporates vanadium oxide (VOx) along with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) or graphene. This Microbolometer, which uses a microbridge comprising Si3N4 and VOx, provides low noise and high dynamic range longwave infrared (LWIR) band detection. Addition of CNTs/graphene provides a high level of performance [low 1/f noise, noise equivalent temperature difference (NETD), and thermal time constant] due to the high temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of these materials.

A radiation detector with a substrate and a membrane, which is suspended above the substrate by a spacer is described, wherein the spacer thermally insulates a radiation sensor, which is formed in the membrane, from the substrate. Further, the spacer includes a first layer, which is electrically conducting and contacts a first pole of the radiation sensor and of the substrate, and a second layer, which is electrically conducting and electrically insulated from the first electrically conductive layer and contacts a second pole of the radiation sensor and of the substrate, wherein the second pole differs in polarity from the first pole.