Metamaterial-integrated microbolometer focal plane arrays for multispectral imaging in the mid- and long-wavelength infrared

This work presents the first multispectral imager consisting of microbolometer focal plane arrays with plasmonic metamaterial absorbers and integrated readout circuitry for imaging in the mid-wavelength and long-wavelength infrared. The fabrication is carried out in a post-CMOS manufacturing process on 200 mm wafers. Existing microbolometer technology featuring a pixel pitch of 17 µm was used as a platform, resulting in metamaterial-integrated microbolometers that are four times smaller than the smallest reported to date. The most responsive detectors produced have a noise-equivalent temperature difference of 151 ± 5 mK, enabling recordings at a frame rate of 30 Hz. Multispectral thermography images are provided as an application example and demonstrate successful implementation.