Infrared termopile sensor and manufacturing method therefor

Abstract

An IR thermopile sensor and a method of manufacturing the same. In the IR thermopile sensor, a substrate defines an annular first groove provided therein with a thermal conductivity enhancement layer made of an electrically conductive material. A plurality of thermocouple components are spaced apart from one another above an insulating layer and a support layer extend from above the thermal conductivity enhancement layer towards the inside of an internal annular wall of the first groove. The additionally included thermal conductivity enhancement layer can stabilize the temperature of cold ends of the thermocouple components and reflect IR radiation, helping maintain cold junctions at the same temperature as the ambient temperature. Thus, a temperature gradient can be more easily established across hot and cold ends, resulting in improved performance. The thermal conductivity enhancement layer can be made of a material, which is selected to make the present invention easy to implement in terms of structure. Additionally, since the only cost increase is caused by the thermal conductivity enhancement layer, facilitating commercial large-scale production. The insulating layer is disposed between the thermal conductivity enhancement layer and the thermocouple components and can reduce flicker noise in signals output from the IR thermopile sensor.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.