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US 10,520,364 B2Granted
Thermal protection mechanisms for uncooled microbolometers
AssigneeRaytheon Company
InventorsPaolo Masini, John William Devitt
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and apparatus for preventing solar damage, and other heat-related damage, to uncooled microbolometer pixels. In certain examples, a thermochroic membrane that becomes highly reflective at temperatures above a certain threshold is applied over at least some of the microbolometer pixels to prevent the pixels from being damaged by excessive heat.
Claims20
An uncooled microbolometer comprising:
- a base substrate;
- a plurality of pixels arranged in an array on the base substrate;
- a cap layer coupled to and disposed over the base substrate, the cap layer being configured to provide a cavity between the base substrate and the cap layer, the plurality of pixels being disposed within the cavity;
- and
- a thermally sensitive protective membrane disposed on the cap layer over a sub-array of at least some of the plurality of pixels, the thermally sensitive protective membrane including a thermochroic switch material configured to transition from a transmissive state into a reflective state in response to a temperature of thermochroic material reaching a predetermined threshold, the thermochroic material being transmissive to infrared radiation in the transmissive state and reflective to the infrared radiation in the reflective state.
2 more elements
An uncooled microbolometer comprising:
- a base substrate;
- a plurality of pixels arranged in a plurality of two-dimensional sub-arrays on the base substrate;
- a cap layer coupled to and disposed over the base substrate, the cap layer being configured to provide a cavity between the base substrate and the cap layer, the plurality of pixels being disposed within the cavity;
- and
- a thermally sensitive protective membrane disposed on the cap layer, the thermally sensitive protective membrane including a plurality of discrete portions, each portion being disposed over a corresponding one of the plurality of sub-arrays of the plurality of pixels, the thermally sensitive protective membrane including a thermochroic switch material configured to transition from a transmissive state into a reflective state in response to a temperature of thermochroic material reaching a predetermined threshold, the thermochroic material being transmissive to infrared radiation in the transmissive state and reflective to the infrared radiation in the reflective state.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.