Analytical model for the electro-thermal feedback effect in a microbolometer infrared focal plane array

Abstract

An analytical model for the electro-thermal feedback effect in a microbolometer infrared focal plane array is presented. The presented model is the integrated optical-electro-thermal model, in which the electro-thermal feedback effect incorporated with the response of incident IR can be described. In addition, since the model is based on physics, the model parameters also have their own physical meaning. This analytical model can be easily utilized to describe the temperature increase caused by the applied heat sources and has a unique feature describing capability of optical-electro-thermal analysis in a quasi-steady-state, which can hardly be performed with thermal analysis tools based on the finite element method. The model shows that the temperature of the microbolometer in this study can be increased 7.1% to 18.6% more by the electro-thermal feedback effect.